Song of the Night

Race Cars and Goth Rock - Butch Walker

What I can I say I come from racecars and goth rock
And what can you do, you're just California gridlock
I'm a broken down camaro overheated, but you'll never know
You're the one that caused this crash

Saw him and the Let's Go Out Tonites last night at 9:30. Absolutely one of the most fun shows I've ever been to and this comes the night after seeing Super Diamond. Three concerts in one week and I'm off to Boston in a couple days to have a lady date with my mom for Snow Patrol. I love Spring. All kinds of good shows! We're moving offices this week, I've got a date Friday and a full weekend and I've got a lot going on so more later kids. Kisses!

Was It a Date?

Rounds Two and Three:

The night after I went out with Bryan (who I keep talking with and I think would be interested if I cast out the dating line-I don't have time right now) I met XM at my bar for drinks and some food. It was a really great time. I adore him and love spending time with him. I just don't feel a strong desire to get the guy naked. It's incredibly unfortunate. We both spoke of dates we've been on since we stopped dating, it's been long enough to do that, especially since we were friendly and dating others when we first met. We stayed a couple hours and then he walked me to my corner where we hugged goodbye. No forceful, out of nowhere kiss this time which was nice. Right after I got home, I received an email from him giving me the link to a website we'd been laughing over (http://marmadukeexplained.blogspot.com/ - hilarious stuff people). Since then, we've emailed back and forth a couple times, but nothing serious, so I'm fairly certain what started as a date for one of us, ended not as one mutually which is perfect.

Flash to this past Monday when XM met Angie and me out for trivia night. First, thank God he met us out - I had been feeling out of it all day and was fairly useless in all things trivial (even more out of it Tuesday - turns out it was the beginning of a really bad stomach/intestinal flu - I've been home sick two days and it totally is not fun), moving on. So, we had a great time at trivia and it wasn't uncomfortable at all because, hey, last time wasn't a date, right? Well, he kept brushing his leg against mine, would let his hand linger on mine when taking the pen, drank out of my beer a couple times (hope he didn't catch my cooties), kept catching him staring at me (granted, that could have been the Evil Twin hair). He offered to drive Angie and me home. She lives on the Hill so she suggested dropping me off, then dropping her off at U Street so she could catch the bus and I agreed it made sense. He shot me a look that I can only describe as disappointed and then started to suggest another plan, which I interrupted to point out that the one we had made the most sense. He's just a hard one to read.

More importantly, we came in second place! Which meant $20 off our bar tab (first is $100 off). I think we fared very well considering there were only 3 of us, compared to the 5 veterans who beat us. We will be going back and we will be bringing a stronger team!

Shamrock Shenanigans

Last weekend was a bit out of control. What started out as drinks at our bar on Friday night to plan a fundraiser turned into lots of drinks at Buffalo Billiards and me waking up at a...friend's...house 20 minutes before my 9:45 am hair appointment Saturday morning. Luckily he lives within walking distance of Mazza so I was only 5 minutes late, but probably still buzzed from the night before. So much for the Year of Good Decisions. I would chalk it up to a momentary lapse of reason if the rest of the weekend hadn't happened...although according to my coworker, I can blame Saturday/Sunday on what has been deemed my "Evil Twin" hair because it is now way darker than I have ever had it before, near black actually if I'm not in direct light. It will mellow to a nice chocolate brown, but for now it's pretty damn dramatic. I like it. Anyways. I was starting to get a headache at the end of my hair appointment, so I made plans to meet my friend James for brunch at Wonderland. Bottomless bloody marys were just what I needed to take the edge off my headache. The plan was to go for a couple hours, head home for a nap and then head out for St. Patrick's Day. Well, that didn't happen. I ended up getting home from brunch (actually from drinks Friday night) sometime around 2 am Sunday morning. It was crazy. Seriously. At one point I said "What about me says 'coke whore' because I'd like to change it immediately" because I was offered coke more than once by a couple people. Me. The girl who has never even tried any drugs nor smoked anything in her life (except maybe 3 puffs off Agie's cigars from time to time).

Anyways, the Year of Good Decisions is back in effect. I've got a pretty busy weekend, but will try to catch up - I've been incredibly remiss in posting my adventures. I'm sure you're all dying to know what's been going on (she says sarcastically).

CBS Can Kiss My ASS

Maybe I should just chalk it up to living on the East Coast, but I much prefer to blame the network. It's bad enough they rarely show entire PAC 10 games on the network, even during March Madness, but to show commercials instead of cutting to the last minute of a 7 point game? And then when coming back from those damn this is our country truck commercials to just show a graphic of the score when there is more than 7 minutes left of the other game? GARRRRGH. CBS, if it weren't for How I Met Your Mother, I'd never watch you again...after the tournament of course because this Ohio State/Tennessee game is pretty darn good and my brackets are kind of depending on the Buckeyes.

Let's Play a Game

It's called "Was it a Date?".

Round One:
After a drink with coworkers last night, I headed over to Dupont to meet Bryan for dinner. I haven't seen him in about 10 months, so I wasn't sure how to greet him. He took care of that by giving me a big hug. We had a really great time at dinner, there was some flirting, catching up, a little digging on his part as to what I've been up to the last 10 months or so. He kept teasing me about my voice - I've been fighting a cold all week. When the check got there, out of reflex, I grabbed my wallet, then when he put way too much, I gave him some back. If I'm going to pay something, at least let me pay my part. We stayed talking for another 30 minutes and then decided we both needed to get home. He put me in a cab, gave me a hug and said good night. I don't think it was a date, but there was definitely a vibe (at the risk of sounding like Larry the neighbor on Three's Company) like it was. I'm confused.

Song of the Day

Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect - The Decemberists. This one goes out to George Costanza aka Art VanDeLay.

Nancy Drew's Guide to Life

After receiving an electrical shock to the system, find as many men as possible to vigorously massage you. - Mystery of the Glowing Eye

How convenient that tip of the day is considering that in the last two days, I've heard from four guys I used to date. Two were completely random, out of the blue and the others I've stayed in contact with intermittently.

The Not Randoms
1. Bryan and I went on a couple dates, had a swell time, but I had just broken up with Paul and wasn't ready to be dating so I let it cool off, with us occasionally chatting every few months. The last week or so, we've been trying to get together for brunch and it keeps not working out, so we're going to dinner tomorrow night. I'm really looking forward to it. He's such a funny, charismatic guy that it will be anything but dull. I'm unsure if it's a date though.

2. Steve. Steve and I have a checkered past to say the least. I was seeing him two years ago, before I met ex-boyfriend, then when we supposedly became exclusive, I stopped seeing Steve, as well as SAM (his real name completely escapes me) and Ryan. Steve and I have met up over the past two years every now and then, even with him having a girlfriend, who I'm pretty sure he's living with now. It gets to be sticky sometimes because there is still a very strong attraction there on both our parts, but in this Year of Good Decisions, I think I should be okay tonight when we meet for drinks. I am completely sure this isn't a date, at least from my point of view. Guess it will depend on how many drinks we have.

The Randoms
1. Boyscout is back people. If he wasn't so damn good looking and tall and funny....sigh. Anyways, he caught me online last night and we ended up chatting for about an hour. We'll see what happens there.

2. XM. Yep. XM is back too. After I stopped the secret dating, it took some time, but he got unmad at me and we went out as friends for dinner and drinks and had a lovely time catching up once it became unawkward (this was during football season, so like 5 months ago maybe?). I never know what's going to happen with this guy. When we said good night that night, we hugged, as is customary, and then as I was turning to head home, he grabbed my face (much more gently than that description sounds) and kissed me smack on the lips, pulled away, smiled, looked me in the eye, said good night and walked away. So weird. Anyways, last night I was out to drinks with a coworker and I mentioned XM because we're looking for people to share our Nats season seats with and I thought I should shoot him an email to see if he's interested even though I haven't talked with him forever. So I get home and see an email from him. After a couple bantering emails back and forth, we ended up on the phone for an hour or so and now we're having drinks Thursday. Again, unsure if it's a date or not, but given his track record, he probably thinks it is.

I knew I should have stayed on hiatus. This is getting exhausting.

Nancy Drew Tip of the Day

Carry a police whistle to scare off creeps. - The Secret of the Forgotten City

Are you listening Courtney?

I Am Evidently Going to Hell

I just had this conversation with a coworker:

Liz: I'm giving up beer for Lent.
Me: That's why I'm Episcopalian - Catholic Lite
Liz: I'm Episcopalian too. Actually baptized and confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church though.
Me: I was never baptized. So scandalous - especially when I was teaching Sunday School.
Liz: Ooooh. You're going to hell.
Me: According to my Christian Doctrine teacher Freshman year of college, I shall burn in hell for all eternity.
Liz: Yeah. That's too bad. At least it's something you can change.
Me: I've met me. I'm pretty sure there will be things higher on the list to discuss with St. Peter.

When I got back to my desk "Straight to Hell" by Matt Nathanson was playing. I can't make this sh*t up. Seriously. iTunes never lies. I'm doomed. So having fun on the way down.....within the constraints of the Year of Good Decisions of course! If I could withstand the temptation of this weekend, I'm golden.

Great Things Named Orson

Wells
Kyle MacLaughlin's character on Desperate Housewives
My band of the weekend. Check out Orson. They released an album last December, made big in the U.K. and are finally here in the US.

More to come from me this weekend. I'm not on call for the office and I've got most of my school work done so I should have some time to post.

Cold as Hell? That Doesn't Even Make Sense

Today I heard a guy on the bus say "Man, it's cold as Hell this morning". Granted, the newspeople were saying "If you don't absolutely have to go outside, you shouldn't", so it is very cold, but doesn't bus guy know that Hell is full of fire and brimstone, not ice? If it were cold then you could cuddle for warmth, go snowboarding, ice skating. There are all sorts of fun wintery things you could do if it were really cold in Hell. And if there are fun things to do, by definition, it isn't Hell. Then again, it would be awful if you didn't have the proper attire. Still, I'd much rather freeze to death than burn to death....although if I had my druthers (what does that mean?) I'd like to go in my sleep.

And God said "noted".

Gotta Listen Kids

Check out Paolo Nutini. He has a four song EP on iTunes and it is completely worth the $3.49 or whatever they are charging for it. Last Request is a great song and the other three are just as enjoyable. His voice has this scratchy, soulful quality to it while at the same time being one of the smoothest I've heard in a long time. Oh yeah, did I mention he's only 19?

If I Were a TOTAL Geek

I would totally want this....

Stomp

Friday night Cindy and I had a lady date. We met at my office at 5:45 (which proved to be a good decision! on my part because I would not have been able to get out of there before 8 otherwise) and headed over to dinner at La Tosca, a Spanish tapas restaurant. It was Restaurant Week in DC and we took advantage of what was usually their Wednesday night tapas special which is basically all the tapas you can eat plus a dessert for $30.05 a person. I didn't feel like making any decisions and Cindy was up for adventure so I asked the waiter to just bring us his favorite dishes and had him surprise us with glasses of a nice, spicy rioja. It was fabulous and delicious. During dinner we caught up on what's been going on in each other's lives and kept an eye out for her husband and two kids who were coming into the city for some thing at the MCI Center. We never did see them, but we did see Abby walking by who, wih her husband, hosted Heather's going away party that we threw last weekend (story to come very very soon).

After dinner we headed to the Warner Theater for Stomp. Our cab driver was IN SANE. We get into the cab and he cranks up the radio and says "great song, yeah?". We just started giggling and agreed. That song (Irreplaceable by Beyonce) ended and the next song was "Turn the Page" by Bob Seger which just got him more pumped, especially when Cindy said "I need a shot". It's true. Everytime that song comes on it seems wrong to not be throwing back a shot of JD. Maybe that's why I don't listen to it that often. Anyways, we had great seats and a wonderful time. I saw Stomp with my mom and Aunt Denise when it first made the rounds about 10 years ago in CA and really enjoyed it so when Cindy was looking for someone to go with I immediately said yes. These performers are incredible percussionists. They are able to make sounds with just about anything; brooms, sand, their hands, lighters, bags, etc. Anyone who doesn't leave that show wanting to be a drummer, I don't want to be friends with.

Check This Chick Out

Rachael Yamagata. I've been listening to her album "Happenstance" off and on over the last couple months (even though it's been around since 2004) and it just keeps getting better. Absolutely fantastic voice, somewhat husky, vulnerable but strong. Her songs have been featured in The Last Kiss and my personal favorite comedy right now How I Met Your Mother (Wanna go to the mall today Mark?) I know I've raved about HIMYM before, but yet another reason to love the show is their music selection. Gotta love a show that features Bon Jovi, The Decemberists, Bloc Party, the Femmes and has The 88 playing a prom. Fantastic.

Band of the MLK Weekend

I've been working tons so far this year and I've been under the weather with a pretty bad cold. I'm going to be spending this weekend catching up on things like laundry, cleaning my house and seeing how many of my friends outside of DC are still alive (and still friends since i've been pretty MIA as of late). That said, I have been in need of some good old fashioned fun music and found it in Gym Class Heroes. Their album As Cruel As School Children is quite entertaining. More later - kisses.

Don't Forget The Robot

How I Met Your Mother is the new Arrested Development. A great, funny show that no one is watching and critcs love. Barney "The Barnacle" is quite possibly one of the funniest characters ever on television. A warning: This song will never, ever, ever leave your head. That said, throw on your rubber bracelets and grafitti coat and head to the mall....today.

Happy New Year Everyone

So The Year Of Good Decisions has begun leaving The Year That Kicked My Ass behind. There isn't a more excited girl in the world, let me tell you.

My long, holiday weekend has been pretty fun so far. Very quiet and relaxing. I've been going non-stop for awhile now and feel like I haven't been home for like a month. My apartment is a disaster, I've got tons of laundry to do and I've just been too tired to do any of it. So I intentionally went into this weekend with little to no set plans other than New Year's Eve.

The weekend started Thursday with pizza, beer and movies at Agie's. After some "I call bullshit" from Tim and Agie regarding the lack of loving between me and Bob Tuesday night (seriously, I turned him down - I'd tell you if I didn't), we may or may not have watched Borat which was funny stuff. Not as funny as the hype has been, but I usually don't enjoy watching nice people get made fun of. Other than those few parts the movie had some hilarious moments along with a very, very disturbing scene involving naked hairy men and wrestling. Seriously. My eyes will never be the same again. *shudder* After that we threw in The Comedians of Comedy. Fan-freaking-tastic. Three of the four comedians are hilarious. I've got to make sure I put the rest of the dvds in my Netflix lineup (even though I've had my three movies for about a month now).

Friday I left work at a decent hour, came home, made dinner, watched The Break Up (which was an entertaining flick - glad I didn't see it when it came out, but more glad that I watched it - some of the situations were a little too familiar to parts of early last year) and went to bed sometime around 11.

Saturday I ran a bunch of errands which included grocery shopping for the first time in about a month. I hate not having fresh vegetables and fruit in my house but I've been working so many hours during the week (and a lot of weekends) and traveling on the weekends I'm not working, it's been very difficult to go to the store. I really need to get better this year about making time to do things I really need to do (see: The Year of Good Decisions) especially with school starting in 3 weeks. I guess I can look at this withdrawal from society because of work as a test run for when school begins - at least this way I won't be stopping having a lot of fun cold turkey. I'm slowly weaning myself off the fun. Shoosh. Let me fool myself a little longer please. Anyways, after errands, I met Jim at Dupont for Babel which we've been trying to see for about two weeks now (see: working a lot of hours). It was a really good movie despite some problems (no need at all for the Japanese story line - it felt very contrived and really was only there to see a naked Asian girl). The fact that there were a couple times where you knew exactly what was going to happen, yet there was still a strong feeling of suspense was impressive. The acting was fantastic and the vignettes in Morrocco and Mexico were really true to life. After the movie we went to Raku for dinner which was really good. I love that place. Then we walked to Jim's so I could meet the new lady in his life Natalya (named after Borat's sister - the 4th best prostitute in Khazakstan). His friend works at the Humane Society here in DC. A couple weeks back they raided a house that had over 15 cats living (if you can call it that) in squalor that they took in which meant they needed to make room at the facility. Jim was kind enough to take one of the cats that had been there for two months. She is so cute and lively and driving Jim nuts with her energy. He's very cute with her though. Dotes on her like no one I've ever seen. That's why I send Charlotte to Chez Jim anytime I'm gone for an extended period of time. He treats her like she's on vacation too. Anyways, after the visit with Natalya, Jim drove me home and I again went to bed fairly early (around 1).

Sunday was more errands and a lot of lazing about between loads of laundry. I like to have tv on in the background while I do housework rather than music. With music I get too involved with what I want to listen to at any given moment and spend more time setting up a playlist or forwarding through songs to be really effective and get anything done efficiently. I've found that bad television works much better and is far less distracting. So, I settled on Ugly Betty and went to work tackling the mound of laundry in my closet. I totally got sucked in to an Ugly Betty marathon. Damn that show. It's really quite fun, even though it's incredibly predictable and she's just so darn cute you can't help but love her, huge, bushy eyebrows and braces be damned. I headed over to Heather's for champagne before what has now become our annual Logan Tavern New Year's Eve dinner. Sarah and her husband were there already and then we met Tori and her boyfriend at the restaurant. Such a great time at dinner. It's always incredibly good food and I couldn't have asked for better company. I'm not a huge fan of big, extravagant NYEs - I'd much rather have a nice evening with friends than get all dolled up and pay tons of money to hang out with a bunch of people I don't know whose sole goal of the evening is to find someone to kiss at midnight. Ugh. Anyways, after dinner we headed to New Vegas Lounge for great live music and dancing. My Year of Good Decisions decree was a hit with my friends who have all decided to have their own themes for 2007. Heather's is The Year of No International Incidents since she is moving to South Korea in a couple weeks, Britton took a liking to The Year of Good Decisions and has decided he will follow my lead, and Sarah has decided that 2007 for her will be The Year of The Banjo. Evidently she received a banjo as a gift from the gentleman who made it (I didn't get all the story - sorry, it was really really loud) and decided that she should probably learn to play it. We all headed home around 1 and it was looking like yet another early, quiet evening for Plan B. I ended up talking to a bunch of folks and got to bed around 4. Not too bad for NYE, although I do see a nap in my future.