not falling down

Best junk mail EVER:

So last night I accomplished one of my life goals: playing music, live, with both members of Grandma’sGenius! Jon and I have played together for years, of course, and Chris and I played severaltimes during GSP 2001, but last night was thefirst time we’d all played together (literally–we went on sans practice).

We actually sounded really good, especially on the Guster covers (Demons and Airport Song). We all wished there was a way torecord it, but none of us had the equipment handy (or in fact at all). I kind of messed up myfavorite Jon song, Tennessee, by trying to play keyboard on it; it may have been an omen when thesustain pedal on my piano broke a few hours before we went on.

Even so, there was nothing that sounded bad and quite a lot that sounded good. I think they mighteven hire me as their touring drummer! (Note that by “hire” I mean “permit.”)

every one of you isfired

Richard Harris died.

Ben Folds was stunning, again, this time even more so because he was playing solo–just him and the piano (which I think is still the name of the tour)–and it didn’t feel like anything was missing. He got an almost unfair amount of music out of it: stomping the pedals like a kick drum, tapping on the mike in lieu of toms, and of course conducting the audience in place of strings or trumpets or whatever.

And that might be the best part. I went in planning to scream for Where’s Summer B.?, easily my favorite BF5 song and one I didn’t really expect to hear even upon request. And he DID play it! Without provocation, as like the fourth song! And we got to sing the best background vocals in any song ever!

So that was good. And then! Not only did I finally meet Jon’s friend Ana, who is unspeakably cool, but we met a bunch of UK friends at the Tolly Ho afterwards. These included my old friend Audrey, whom I hadn’t seen since spring (and before that not for probably two years), and her roommate Alden, whom I’d never met. It was a great time.

And then, the next day, Audrey and I were commenting (via email) about how much fun the whole thing was, and that we should hang out more often, and I asked her to the Centre fall dance and she totally said yeah!

The (large) part of me that is still a sophomore in high school is dancing for joy right now.

Anyway, the week has been work work rehearse rehearse other than that. This weekend’s Centre homecoming, and though it can’t possibly match my own for nostalgia, I’m sure it will surpass it in quantity of graduated friends. Or you could take Lisa’s hunch and predict that it’s going to be “mad drama.” Whatever. I’m just looking forward to sleeping in.

so she won’t sleep better alone
and they won’t feel better alone

Lately my life is filled with cats. Not only is Poly the most popular character in the strip, but the black cat who lives somewhere in the neighborhood is apparently determined to represent her in real life. This cat is possibly the sweetest animal ever. It wears a collar and a bell, and it always looks well-fed, so it has to belong to somebody–but we don’t know who, and it tends to hang out on our porch in the rain. Jon and I are positively smitten.

Today, a third cat-related incident (qualifying cats as a journal topic): There was a tiny kitten outside the dining hall today, hiding in the bushes and mewling. I mentioned it to the lady at the entrance, and she promised to slip some food out for it later, and then Lisa called this afternoon and informed me that she and David had picked it up anyway. I have no idea what they’re going to do with it, and right now my kitten-adoption sympathies are at war with allergy flashbacks.

Also! You probably wanted to know what happened at the show the other day, and I really have been meaning to tell you, but the direct consequences of said show have continued consequenting (?) all week. So! That’ll be in this next entry, coming up in a minute. (Entries are broken up solely because I’m in Software Engineering right now, and can’t stand to mix modules.)

Ah, fall–when the weather is mild, the air is crisp, and I GET TO SEE BEN FOLDS!

T-minus two hours!

From a Rolling Stone interview with Avril Lavigne:

“Do you consider yourself a feminist?

I don’t really know. What exactly is that?”

And:

“When I was ten, I was like ‘whoa, I think I’m a poet.’”

But:

“I’m not going to call myself a punk, because punks aren’t on MTV.”

Hey, at least she’s honest.

(Incidentally, avril.com redirects to a porn site. Somebody was on top of things.)

The heat appears to operate entirely independent of my control, turning itself on sometime around 10 am and turning itself off around 10 pm. The knobs on some of the radiators don’t turn at all,and the ones that do turn have no effect. I wasn’t under the impression that this was how radiators worked! Evening is interesting, at least, as I have to open windows around 6 and turn the space heater on again by 11.

Things that have distracted me lately:

• “…our machines have to keep grinding over it, the grit in their backwash sandblasting the blood away.”

• “Ah, it’s just someone sitting there, because you don’t see dead bodies, you just don’t.”
• The same girl who recommended Anthropology told me to look for this band Relient K. She didn’t mention that they were a Christian band at the time, which is probably a good thing; I enjoy being Catholic, but I don’t listen to Christian music (anymore) because, as a rule, it sucks heartily on anything you have available. It wasn’t until I borrowed their CD from Ginger, my Joe Egg spouse, that I realized they a) rocked and b) had songs about Jesus and stuff. Then I got to this track called “Down In Flames,” which is a straight up slam of Christians in general by a self-aware Christian band. It’s even got a disclaimer at the end. I can’t get enough.
• Also, they have a song about Lion-O.
• As the only one of my friends still here for the break, I’m taking care not only of Idaho but of Meghan’s turtle and Ken’sred-bellied frogs (plus their cricket-based food source). The resulting situation can be seen camwards.

if Ihad a penny for my thoughts
I’d be a millionaire

This is kinda like Solitary all over again. I wonder if I should do a 24-hour comic as long as I’mhere?

I’m alone in the apartment, as I most likely will be for at least a couple days. It’s fall break,but once again that doesn’t actuallyentail a break or anything for me. I have from now until Sunday night to finally put theback end on the Cento site, learn a greatmany lines for Joe Egg and Waiting for Godot and do other miscellaneous jobs (ahemputting up Tuesday’s Xorph ahem ahem).

It’s not going to be entirely lonely–Lisa is coming back on Friday night or something, and then on Saturday I get tochill with a certain someone.Besides, isolation is the optimum environment for creativity. I think.

I’ll probably just end up watching Law & Order and idly clicking Crummy every hour or so. Assuming my tiny spaceheater doesn’t give out, of course, in which case (since we have no heat yet) I’ll freeze to deathalmost immediately.

Welcome to the four-day weekend… of danger!

Update 1138 hrs: The heat came on!

Update 2222 hrs: I can’t turn the heat off!

We slept in the back of her SUV with the windows cracked and her sweater for a pillow. Around 8 or so I woke up and looked around, and there were three deer outside–two of them chasing each other, one just making its stately way across the field. They were maybe ten feet away. I thought about waking her up so she could see them, but she’d set her alarm for 9, and since we hadn’t actually gotten to sleep until around 5:30 (I think) I figured she could use another hour.

She’d scooted over in her sleep to the point where I was kind of crushed against the door. One of my arms was still asleep from where I’d had my head on it, and it was numbingly cold, especially since I’d given her most of the blanket. It had been less than nine hours since we met. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt so comfortable.

The deer left, but by the time she woke up they were back.