so WOW

a new green day album came out this past friday and it's so overwhelming on first listen that i can't even comment on it yet. after fifteen years of listening to them i am used to getting made fun of for it, but it's somehow worse when the people who are doing it now USED to like them too and have completely written them off. i know i can't expect everyone to have the same experience i did where i felt like we grew up TOGETHER, but that's ok. i respect them for how far they've come. blah blah blah. that's not my point here. my point is, the new green day album contains THE MOST PERFECT LOVE SONG IN THE WORLD. it kills me. it kills me on its own, and when it comes on while i'm making out with my boyfriend, it makes me fall apart and bawl like a little baby. NOW THAT'S SOME POWERFUL STUFF! it's the cutest thing i ever read and the most perfect way to express those sentiments that are sometimes so hard to get right...and if someone ever wrote those words for me, i would probably just die. HOLY HELL!!!


LAST NIGHT ON EARTH

i text a postcard, sent to you
did it go through?
sending all my love to you
you are the moonlight of my life every night
giving all my love to you
my beating heart belongs to you
i walked for miles til i found you
i'm here to honor you
if i lose everything in the fire
i'm sending all my love to you

with every breath that i am worth
here on earth
i'm sending all my love to you
so if you dare to second guess
you can rest assured
that all my love's for you

my beating heart belongs to you
i walked for miles til i found you
i'm here to honor you
if i lose everything in the fire
i'm sending all my love to you

my beating heart belongs to you
i walked for miles til i found you
i'm here to honor you
if i lose everything in the fire
did i ever make it through?


this isn't a very good video but i wanted everyone to be able to hear it. i'm sure some better ones will pop up once the album has been out for a while.




so the next couple of weeks are going to be some very exciting times in this rock'n'roll life. it will start this friday in columbus when the krunchies are on tour. the weekend after, josh and i are going to buffalo, ny for pain in the big neck fest. friday will be the last blowtops show ever and that's sad to me. it won't be the same when the others come over my house and creepy dave isn't there for them to pick on anymore.



on saturday night the baseball furies are reuniting for a show and i can't wait because i never got to see them before they broke up.

next month i am going to see THE MUMMIES but i already told all of you how excited i am for that. i still don't think it has sunken in!



later in the month, josh and i are driving to detroit to see the oblivians and the gories. oblivians are fucking great and have been broken up for a while. things are gonna be ACES in the next couple weeks!



every year the street i live on has a huge street sale with tons of garage/yard sales. people makes yummy food to sell (my neighbor always rents a sno cone machine!) and it's pretty neat. i will have LOTS of junk (vintage and otherwise) to get rid of so please stop by if you are in the neighborhood! it's on a saturday and sunday, so feel free to get a hold of me for more information if this sounds interesting to you. josh and i have also started a new business which we haven't unveiled yet but i think we will have some stuff for sale from that at our yard sale as well. if you like creepy things and abandoned crap, it just might be right up your alley.

won't you be my neighbor

every day when i get home from work and i'm so stressed out i want to karate chop cinder blocks with my bare hands, i sit down in front of the computer and unwind by spending time on here. i wish i had more friends on this site, or at least more interesting places to visit (not because the ones i already frequent aren't interesting enough -- NONSENSE! -- but because i am constantly in need of MORE MORE MORE! i am greedy that way.) some of my favorite things in life include lists, quotes, photographs, memoirs, essays, narratives, letters, diaries and journals. i guess it's the voyeur in me. just be thankful i'm not standing underneath your windowsill watching you change into your pajamas.

while you're here, make sure you drop me a line or add me or be a "follower" or do whatever it is you have to do to make your presence known. it's not easy to find people you know on here even though i know you're out there! but making new friends is just as nice. HOLLA.

honey baby i'm puttin out the FLAME!

ack! it's been so long and i'm soo behind! let me explain.

first i was sick for a week. then romantic getaway a.k.a. horriblefest happened and i was babysitting for the weekend. then i was sick for another week. and that brings me to today. i'm trying to get back on track but i feel all discombobulated. first, i'll talk about something i probably shouldn't.

most people have heard me complain about our asshole neighbors downstairs. they are the stereotypical annoying neighbors: loud, messy, rude, inconsiderate, etc. they would steal our parking spots and their friends would always come over and park in the driveway, blocking us in or out of the drive. it was supposed to be just one guy living down there, but he moved in his girlfriend and her three kids without asking, plus they always had family and friends staying over. for whatever reason, they locked us out of our own basement so only THEY had access to it. once when they were blasting music and talking to friends in a car at 3am in the driveway, i got out of bed and asked them to please be quieter. dude's response was: "we're not even talking." over and over we asked the landlord to do something. we put up with all of that until we heard from a little birdie that the dude was stealing our electricity via an extension cord in the basement. fuck THAT.

about a week ago we saw the guy taking truckloads of his stuff out of the house. when he wasn't home, his girlfriend would be over doing the same thing. we figured something was up and hoped they were leaving, but we didn't hold our breath. cut to a few days ago when josh was outside smoking. he saw the guy who lives in the front of the house talking to two people with badges and guns. they came up to josh and introduced themselves as detectives and started asking questions and showing pictures of the guy in the back of the house. they told josh if he saw him return to the house to call the police right away because he was wanted. the guy from the front of the house shouted, "yeah, for raping his girlfriend's six-year-old daughter!" the detectives nodded their heads yes.

i don't know if this is really true or if maybe his girlfriend is nutty and accused him of something this terrible to get him in trouble or whatever. all i know is that they are both gone and we finally have some peace and quiet. i hope, for that little girl's sake, that it isn't true. either way, WHAT A DIRTBAG.

so what else? romantic getaway was lots of fun. i'm glad that it's over and i can stop stressing about it. kajun ss, the one band that me, paul and russ were all the most excited to see, did not happen. that was a major bummer, and really the only big hitch we encountered all weekend. i guess i should count my blessings. unlike some of the madness from previous years, i only had two bands staying at my house for pajama parties: holy shit! on friday nite and the ladies from richmond, virginia all three nights. shoot it up came over to eat lunch with the ladies on friday afternoon, but other than that hotel hot trash wasn't as crowded as it has been in the past. the highlight of my whole weekend was when tabman, the singer from holy shit!, saw me going in the closet to get sheets for everyone to sleep with and he saw all my dresses hanging up. he asked, "can i wear one?" and because i had never seen him that drunk, i took advantage of the moment and picked out a pretty pink one for him to wear. it was so small he couldn't even zip it up in the back. he followed me into my bedroom and asked, "can i jump on your bed?" so there he was, jumping on my bed at 4am in my pretty pink dress. PRICELESS. especially if you know what his band sounds like, hahaha. the hot tub in the back parking lot of now that's class was a nice touch and ended up being pretty gross, though not nearly as disgusting as i was expecting! i took a lot of pictures but since it's annoying to have to crop all the photos i put in this blog i'll just put up this link to my myspace blogwhere you can see a lot more (once i get around to putting THOSE up).











this past weekend josh and i went to check out an abandoned amusement park near his family's house. before i even knew what it was, i found a documentary about it at the thrift store and it was cool to watch old footage from back in the day. chippewa lake park operated from the 1920s through the 1970s. at some point it caught fire and was never rebuilt. it has been sitting abandoned ever since, with fences all around it so you couldn't get on the property. currently, they have plans to tear it all down and build some fancy new resort in its place. so they are opening the gates to the public on saturdays throughout the summer and you can go walk around the ruins and check it out one last time before it is all demolished. josh and i went and took some photos, which all have a creepy, eerie feel to them. it makes me sad that soon this piece of history will be wiped out for good.











after the amusement park we went to some antique stores in medina and i found a plastic tin full of MONKEES pins for only $8!!! i couldn't contain my happiness. i love those damn fools.









the other nite, josh and i were in line at the store and he tried to pay for what i had. when i refused, he took it out of my hand, saying, "just consider it a mother's day gift. you're gonna be a mother in the next couple of years anyway." as soon as it came out i could see the look on his face that said 'did i just say that out loud?!?' i raised my eyebrows at him and he smirked, saying, "well, whether it's on purpose or on accident, it's bound to happen somehow!" ha. good to know. we bought a grill today, which i am inexplicably SO EXCITED for. cheeseburgers!! i love summer and cookouts and bbqs and picnics. plus, it was just cute..like the time we bought a bed. heh.

speaking of babies...my cousin amy is having one! it's a girl! i'm (sorta) gonna be an aunt! i still think of amy as my little cousin even though she and matt have been married for two years and are living in their own house. it seems like yesterday me, beth and amy were jumping on my bed and when we went downstairs and our parents asked, "were you jumping on the bed?" beth told them "no!" and i told them "no!" and amy told them "YES!" but josh and i want to be just like amy and matt when we grow up. ha. they are my ideal couple: responsible, adorable, and happy.



i'm gonna go watch gangland and eat popcorn with my perfect boy.

little green bag

here is a funny story.

we get all of our stuff at work from donations. occasionally, someone will donate something by accident or one of the truck drivers will pick up something they weren't supposed to. so it isn't odd for me to come to work in the morning and have my boss tell me to keep an eye out for something that was an accidental donation that a person wants to get back. for the past week, i've been on the hunt for a "pink bulldog" because some guy mistakenly packed up his kid's toy and the little boy has been going berzerk ever since. when i came in today, my boss told me to be on the lookout for misdonations, including a microwave and some diamond rings. during the day i was unpacking boxes and pricing things when i turned around to find a middle-aged, (and white trash) couple standing behind me.

"we're looking for a george foreman grill that we accidentally donated and the lady we talked to on the phone said it might not have been unloaded from the truck yet."

it really annoys me when customers think they are allowed to just walk into the back room, so the first thing i said to the couple was, "ok, you need to go out there because you aren't allowed back here...and then i'll go find a manager for you to talk to." i pointed out my manager and went back to what i was doing without giving them another thought.

later on, my manager started going through some boxes i hadn't gotten to yet and pulled a microwave off my pile. "here's one of the things..." he said as he set the microwave aside. "and HERE'S the other!" he said as he opened the microwave door. it was a black shopping back, but inside was one of those clear freezer bags -- FILLED with weed. now, i don't know a damn thing about how much weed costs or what makes some pot better than other kinds (or even how to smoke it, for that matter)...but what i do know is that it was A LOT of weed. and therefore, A LOT of money. now it all made sense why those two people busted into our back room, so intent on getting their "george foreman grill" back. i think the story about diamond rings was just a ruse to get us looking for something important for them. although i'm still confused as to why it was a microwave, and whether or not there is still something left to find when i DO get to a george foreman grill...

and even though i don't know the first thing about pot, the irony was not lost on me that this all happened on 4/20. hahaha.

while i'm on the topic of work, here is something interesting that i really have no business talking about but i will proceed to do anyway because i think it's too cool to be left unsaid. there is an old lady who i've worked with for almost all 8 of my years at the company. everyone smiles and teases her about how excited she gets seeing fancy, lacey lingerie and sexy clothing that gets donated. rumors started going around that she used to be a stripper when she was younger, but no one dared ask her the truth. she would let little details about her life slip into conversation (like how she snuck into a fair to see elvis perform when she was too young to get in, or how she used to date someone in louis prima's band), and i could tell she had some sort of exciting secret life back in the day. eventually, she told me it was true about being a stripper -- she used to do burlesque! back in its heyday! how cool is that??? i know i shouldn't be talking about someone else's private life without their permission, but i just think it's the neatest thing. she told me the cities she worked in the burlesque theaters and where she danced at clubs (here in cleveland). she named a bunch of other burlesque performers she met or was friends with, including tempest storm. she told me it was exciting and terrifying at the same time when she has to get naked ("well, you know, not NAKED, but pasties and things!") she was also very secretive about some rich, important mobster boyfriend she had that took care of her until he died. she told me her stage name, which is the cutest thing to imagine calling this sweet old lady that i know today. she also brought me a few pictures to see, including one shot by a professional studio of her standing on a pedestal in a spotlight wearing nothing but a strategically placed feather boa. i'm jealous she isn't MY grandma. i have met her grandkids before, they are a few years younger than me, and i don't think they have any inkling of her past. i just think it's so neat and i'm really lucky to know her. every day i beg her to remember to bring in more pictures to look at. she said she still has lots of scrapbooks and things from her days in burlesque and i bet they are cool as fuck.

one more thing, and that is to say that THE STATE is being released on dvd on july 14th. I WANNA DIP MY BALLS IN IT.

life is still stressful and i have no other choice but to put on some heels, get my hair real big, and go see the mainkins (from sweden) with my best boy tonite. SCORE.

"does somebody have a lighter? i have a birthday cake in my pocket!" -nobunny

life has been busy and i've been stressed out. i have a lot of different things to talk about but i never seem to have the time! i guess i'll feel a little more organized if i make a list.

1. going way back...a few weekends ago josh and i went to the moondog coronation ball and saw little richard. THERE'S something i never thought would happen! i guess i had too high expectations because i ended up feeling rather let down by the end of the night. it was depressing to see him pushed out in a wheelchair and watch them lift him onto his piano bench (in brilliant color on the huge jumbotron screen, no less). then he yelled at the people who were filming him for the jumbotron because he "wasn't gettin paid to be in no film" and he made them turn the whole screen off! the crowd booed him. after his first song, he said, "you can turn that thing back on now if you want" and that was that. weird-o. he babbled on and on between songs and no one knew what he was talking about so everyone just laughed at him. he kept saying, "SHUDDUP!" which i guess was his thing.





here is a video clip from the show. you can't see shit because we were pretty far away and my camera doesn't zoom in very well. but you can listen to how nuts he is and hear him sing "lucille" (and hear the part where he totally makes fun of ray charles.) he is the white speck sitting at the piano bench.



while we were there, magic 105.7 took a picture of josh and i and they put it up on their website. that's funny.



2. speaking of things i never thought i would be doing...I'M GOING TO SEE THE MUTHAFUCKIN MUMMIES!!! me, beth and greg the bunny are going to NYC this summer to see them. WOW. it hasn't really sunk in yet. we are going to have a pajama party with mags cuz he's letting us crash with him. a pajama party with a dead boy on a trip to see the mummies. CRAZY. sometimes life really is SO GOOD.



3. one night, josh and i went to now that's class so i could see the yum yums. they are a powerpop band from norway who have never played in the united states before. not only was nikki corvette there with her new band, but she sang a few songs with the yum yums (and one of them happened to be "walking out on love" by paul collin's beat). talk about a cool moment.



4. josh and i saw wanda jackson a few days before she got inducted into the rock'n'roll hall of fame. for being around the same age as little richard, she was in WAY better shape. it was my second or third time seeing her and she didn't disappoint. she's so cute, i wish she was my grandma. i was surprised to see paula and alessandro there, and alessandro wanted to know why this was strange to me. i told him it was because he thinks everything is "gay," and i figured this would be one of them. as he eloquently put it: "this is not gay. what's gay is gay. besides, i've been waiting a long time to see that bitch!" imagine that gem with an italian accent.

5. over this past weekend, josh and i went to columbus to see nobunny and the rock and roll adventure kids. it was one of the best shows i've been to in a long time! the rock and roll adventure kids were AWESOME. josh put it best when he described them as something like "a psychotic 60s surf band on speed."





they also acted as nobunny's backing band. usually nobunny will play a tape with his music and sing along, creating some bizarre one man band song and dance routine (without pants). but having a live band back him makes 110% difference and it's an entirely different experience. i have seen him 5 times and this was the most fun yet. there was glitter confetti and sparklers! i sparkled everywhere, including my cleavage. he did "chuck berry holiday" which he has never done before! josh and i sang our hearts out and danced it up and it ruled so so hard. obviously, as you can see:














6. there is a rumor going around that the state is finally going to come out on dvd this summer. i'm not holding my breath because this rumor pops up fairly often...but i can't tell you how great it would be if it finally came true. this is my favorite show EVER EVER EVER and i'm glad so many of the people from the show have gone on to do more hilarious stuff after it ended (reno 911!, wet hot american summer, stella, role models, etc). i am disappointed that some skits will be edited on the dvd because of music license issues -- it just won't be the same! but at least i have my crappy vhs copies of all the original episodes from when they aired on tv back in the 90s. read it with your own eyes.

7. there is also word that a big screen version of stephen king's IT is in the works. i have a great attachment to both this book and the made-for-tv movie that most people are already familiar with. so the thought of this remake makes me nervous more than anything, although i have to admit i am curious to know how they will rework this. here are the significant details that have been released so far:
-will be rated R to include more violence, gore, etc (good)
-novel and 1990 movie version take place in 1958 as children and 19985 as adults. the new one will take place in the 80s as children and present day as adults (I REALLY HATE THIS)
-done by warner brothers (i don't watch enough movies to have an opinion about this)
-the book is over 1,000 pages. the tv movie was three hours long. this one will be standard movie time (will the story even be recognizable? i find it hard to believe...)

here is a short article.

8. life has been stressing me out real bad lately. especially my job, which i can't stand anymore and i think about walking out of every time i am there. thank god i have josh to keep me sane, because he is the only thing getting me out of bed in the mornings. it's almost our 1 year anniversary (in june) and that's so crazy to me...but we are still head over heels in love with each other and we have the most amazing relationship i have ever known. i couldn't ask for anything more.

i ran all the way home just to say i'm sorry

I HAVE TO TALK ABOUT SOMETHING. please believe that i am not being melodramatic when i say this is the meanest thing anyone ever did to me, and is a trauma i am still dealing with to this day.

three years ago i started talking to a boy online. let's call him BIGDUMMYHEAD. i already knew who he was because he played guitar in a band i liked. he knew who i was because we had mutual friends in common. he lived two hours away, and within days of us talking we already made plans for him to come hang out on my radio show. after hot trash, we went to a party and he sat very close to me on the couch. he put his hand on my leg. i can't remember if we kissed that first night, because i blocked out a lot of that time in my life.

DISCLAIMER: let me say right now that even looking back, i STILL do not think i did anything wrong. of course that might sound selfish or ignorant but i am not just saying that because i'm not willing to accept the blame for the way things turned out. this was entirely on him. one thing that i will say was my fault was being too naive not to realize that things weren't what they seemed. i also certainly rushed into things without thinking them through, and i blame that on the fact that i had been single for 3 years before he came along and i was smitten with the idea of being in a relathionship again. i only wish i had protected my heart a little better instead of just giving it away to the next guy who told me he wanted to take care of it.

quickly, we settled into a routine: we would visit each other every weekend, usually switching off. sometimes he would have a day off work and would come up unexpectedly, and that was always a nice surprise. even though i have always been terrified of driving long distances by myself (i HATE the feeling of being lost and i am terrible with directions!), i found myself hurrying home from work on friday afternoons so that i could pack up and drive to his house until sunday night. sometimes, we took the greyhound (which was a fear in itself to get over). when we were together, i thought things were perfect. he was like a little kid in the way he would get so excited to take me to his favorite places around town and show me things i wasn't familiar with. he took me to an amazing record store on the back of his cute little motorcycle. i cooked dinner for him and his roommates. he liked to put on records and slow dance with me in the middle of the room. as stupid as this sounds, i have to admit that i felt special dating this guy in a band i liked who knew all these other people in bands that he would introduce me to. plus, he knew a lot about music in general and turned me onto a lot of new stuff that was exciting.

sometimes he could be impossibly romantic and i was a complete sucker for it. one weekend that i wasn't scheduled to come visit, he begged me to come see him and promised that if i would, we would go out to karaoke with his friends and he would sing "beast of burden" by the rolling stones to me. he did, then proceeded to get kicked out for jumping up on a table to sing it to me. another time he learned how to play "our" song one man band style and led me down into the basement where all his equipment was so that he could surprise me with it. we were both so embarrassed that we couldn't look at each other while he sang it to me. but it was cute.

when we weren't together, we would text and call constantly throughout the day. he said silly things to me about how he wanted to marry me and live together. he seemed offended when i took it as a joke; wouldn't i like it if he moved to cleveland and we could get our own place? he said we should start a band together. i started looking for a place to live. i started buying used dishes at the thrift store. i told my roommates i was moving out.

sure, it seemed crazy after only a few months. but it was also exactly what i wanted to hear. i'm not a big fan of the whole dating scene. i always imagined myself marrying young and starting a family and cooking casseroles for dinner. so when he pseudo-proposed, i pseudo-accepted by making the appropriate changes in my life. the plan was that he would move here in november. the last thing he had keeping him in town was driving his friends from japan while they were on tour during the last week of october.

but as soon as he left for tour, the phone calls stopped. i didn't even try calling him myself, figuring he must be busy and he would call me when he got a chance. soon even the texts stopped. he claimed he was "too busy." one day while i was at work, he texted me, "i don't think this is working out." which was news to me, because before he left things were working out so well that he was moving his whole life 200 miles to be with me. it was a very ugly time for me because i never saw it coming, and he was not sympathetic at all. he said very terrible things to me, called me names, told me to get over it, said we had nothing in common and he didn't see a point in being together. once he dumped me via text message, that was good enough for him to cut all ties and put me behind him. not surprisingly, i wanted more of an explanation than this. i got none.

within a few days, one of his friends had the decency to call me and tell me that BIGDUMMYHEAD returned to town with the all-girl japanese punk band he was driving around and married the lead singer. she barely spoke any english. i even asked him about her one time because i heard a rumor about the two of them. he said that was silly, they were just friends. they started a band together once they were married. he posted lots of pictures of the newly married couple on the message board where he knew we both posted and i was sure to see them.

so there i was, completely humiliated, hurt, confused, disappointed. i had nowhere to go because i already told my roommates i was leaving and they made plans of their own that didn't include me. and to top it all off, BIGDUMMYHEAD was going around telling everyone this happened because i was crazy and he didn't want to date me anymore.

UGH.

occasionally, i would see him at a show in my town or his. we always pretended like we didn't know each other and i made sure not to make eye contact. once, when i walked right past him and i wasn't expecting to see him at all, i burst into tears without warning. i didn't even feel them coming. it was that painful to see him and remember what he did.

last nite i went to now that's class with josh. BIGDUMMYHEAD was there, driving another band around on tour. it made me so uncomfortable just having him in the same room as me, but i tried to ignore it. then, he walked past me and WAVED AT ME. more than anything, i was pissed. how DARE he think he can treat me the way he did and then just wave like we were old friends? i fumed. josh patted my hand to comfort me.

later on, he walked by again and said to me, "hey how are you?" i must have looked confused because he explained, "just saying hi!" i was too shocked to speak, but i found my voice quickly because there was plenty i wanted to say. "why?" i demanded.

"why what?"

"why are you saying hi?"

"because i'm friendly. i'm always friendly. you should know that."

i was appalled. i asked him if he even remembered the last communication we had and he said no.

"it was when you called me in the middle of the night and said, 'listen you fat nerd...'"

then he apologized. he said he was sorry for what happened because i was a good person and i didn't deserve that. he said he was a "different kind of dick then" and he honestly didn't even remember saying those things, but he knew he was sorry for what happened. i asked if he was drunk or on drugs. he said no. then he told me that me and josh look sweet together and he is glad i'm happy.

when he was talking to me, josh tried to stick up for me by saying, "she doesn't wanna talk to you." but i had to silence josh. because HE OWED THAT APOLOGY TO ME and I DESERVED EVERY SECOND OF IT. i never thought it would happen. i never thought the day would come.



i cried, sitting there on the purple couch at now that's class.

last sunday, josh took me to a cute diner for breakfast. i can't believe i've never been there before, seeing as how it's like 5 minutes from my house. while we sat there, we compiled a list of things we want to do and places we want to go this summer. weekends are the only full days we have to spend together and really go out and do things. every saturday and sunday morning, one of us will inevitably ask the other, "so, what are we doin today?" and we wanted to make sure that we are never short on possibilities and wasting precious time when we could be out having adventures. that's what we always called it when we would go out bummin' last summer when we first started hanging out. usually we would take our cameras and find some creepy, abandoned place to take pictures.

anyway, here is our ongoing list:

-explore the abandoned chippewa amusement park before it gets torn down
-revisit my favorite place, lakeview cemetery
-find new cemeteries to explore
-go to the cleveland police museum and see the torso murder exhibit
-go to some train museum that josh knows about (hopefully there will be some boxcar hobos there, too)
-go to middlefield for the flea market/cheesehouse
-roadtrip to west virginia so josh can show me cool stuff (mudriver mall, hasil adkins grave, etc)
-go to all the local diners we can (annabelle's, ruthie and moe's, earle and jackie's street trolley diner, lester's diner, porky's, dan's dogs, the white turkey drive-in)
-hit up lots of flea markets/estate sales/garage sales
-play at the natural history museum
-roadtrip to philly (mutter museum) and atlantic city
-go fishing
-lots of carnivals and fairs!
-go to the harley davidson museum and eat in the diner car
-car shows!!
-see a horror movie at a drive-in
-go to an auction
-go on a picnic
-the zoo
-visit the allen county museum (weird collections of junk)
and above all,
-FIND A DEAD BODY!

josh and i spent all of last summer going on adventures and looking for dead bodies. surely, it has to happen sometime. i always imagine us going on some "stand by me"-type adventure where the payoff at the end is a dead body (but hopefully keifer sutherland won't have to tip me off about it first).


and finally, here is a picture that no one (except perhaps phoebe and her daily feet) will appreciate: a "tattoo" josh drew on me of a tattoo that he wants. because what screams, "hello, i'm from west virginia" better than a tattoo that reads "dirty feets"?? oh yeah, and did i mention that josh wants ME to tattoo it on him? nevermind the fact that i can't even draw a straight line with a pen, let alone a tattoo gun. HAHA. i love my hillbilly boyfriend.

rock'n'roll marathon

josh and i decided to attempt a week and a half long marathon of rock'n'roll. it involved a show just about every single night. here are the results.

friday, march 6: we went to now that's class to see the inmates and midnight. things were not as crazy as i was expecting them to be. both bands were awesome. josh actually left without bleeding or being hit in the head for once! not a bad night.

saturday, march 7: we went to the agora cafe, which is actually now the new location of the town fryer. i had never been to the old location but heard a lot about it and was always curious. this time, we were there to see reverend dead eyes no man gospel band. i have a one man band fetish. we almost went home because the front doors were locked and when we peeked in the windows no one was inside, so we thought the fact that we were a half hour late might have meant we missed the show entirely. we got in by going around back and quickly realized the show hadn't even started yet and we were the only ones in there. aside from the staff and their friends, we remained the only paying customers of the show the entire night. it was awkward. but we met susie, the owner who is the cutest thing in the world. she endeared herself to us by making a comment about how they "don't much like to follow rules around there." perfect, our kind of people. we also made friends with mr. deadeye, and i apologized for dropping the ball when he asked for help finding a place to play last time he was in town. we talked about touring and one man bands and graveyards, and he told us about the collection of full moon water he kept in a storage space. he rules and we promised to take him to lakeview cemetery next time he is in town. he played two sets and proved to be one of the more talented one man bands that i've seen (he even did the whole first song blindfolded -- which was impressive enough to me that he was playing all those instruments by himself WITH eyes, let alone without them).

sunday, march 8: i dragged josh along with me to now thats class to see another one man band, john barrett's bass drum of death. thinking we were seeing an opening band, we watched two dudes play a very good set, then later found it was the newly named "bass drum of death" when one man apparently became two. they were fun, but i was disappointed that i came to see a one man band. also playing were the points, who have a huge live sound and sound a little bit like the marked men on their latest album, which i picked up at the show. good, especially for a free show.

monday, march 9: this had to be the first show i booked that i was disappointed with. ryan pits and the boy toys asked me to help get them a show, so i did. paul from now that's class booked the opening band, who just weren't my thing. i was supposed to dj, but when i got there i found that the person who did it before me switched things all around and everything sounded awful. the worst part was that i suspect the turntable motor is giving out, and in the middle of a record it would start spinning really slow and then right itself again. everyone kept looking at me like i didn't know what i was doing, so eventually i gave up and packed my things early. ryan pits and the boy toys played and seemed like they were totally bored or nervous or just not into it. they were not exciting to watch or hear, and i don't think they were enjoying themselves either. no one from the band ever came over to me and introduced themselves, said hi, smiled, waved, or thanked me for setting up the show. i have never had a band completely ignore me like that after asking me for a favor. paul told me after i went home that the band asked him where they could find a place to stay the nite, and paul told them "if you would have said something to erin, she would have put you up." i even cleaned my house just in case. oh well.

tuesday, march 10: i woke up sick and remained this way for the rest of the week. UGH. no going out to a show, but we had hot trash to do. it went as well as could be expected for feeling like i got hit by a semi-truck. i think it's very cute that josh comes with me every week even though he doesn't have to and i know he is tired in the mornings.

wednesday, march 11: this was our only scheduled night off. we lived it up by watching tv and going to bed sorta early. still very sick.

thursday, march 12: i was really excited to go see gentleman jesse and his men again, even though they were just here a few weeks ago with paul collins beat. they were opening for the black lips, a band i don't really enjoy on record but i do like to see live. while i was at work earlier in the day, jesse was gentlemanly enough to text me and say he put me and josh on the guestlist for the show...which was great because we're brokeasses and weren't looking forward to paying $12 each to get in anyway. when we got there the show was crowded, as the black lips are suddenly huge. there was a lot of drama because i guess the singer punched someone in the throat and put him in the hospital and ruined another girl's expensive camera by pouring beer on it because he was pissed at her for taking pictures of them while they played. get over it, geez. rockstars. after the show we went next door to downtown soulsville to have a soul danceparty. josh and i danced together, my new favorite thing, and i even watched russ romance shake his groove thang a little. eventually jesse and co. came over and hung out while they waited to pack up and come back to our house to sleep. jesse confirmed that the carbonas are indeed calling it quits, which is a bummer for me. after coming back home and making sure josh didn't throw up on anything important, we all crashed around 4am.

friday, march 13: we had every intention of going to now that's class to see the mishaps, a band i knew nothing about but josh assured me were good. but the fact that we were up so late the night before with our unexpected pajama party combined with my cold and our busy week so far...we both admitted defeat and stayed home in bed watching tv all night. it was awesome.

saturday, march 14: we went to now that's class to see the legendary BLOWFLY. he is sorta like a 70-year-old, raunchy, black version of weird al. he is known for taking such classics as otis redding's "sittin on the dock of the bay" and black flag's "tv party" and turning them into gems like "shittin on the dock of the bay" and "vd party." we got there early enough in case the show were to sell out, and indeed a lot of people showed up. but after sitting there for almost 4 hours through a hip-hop band and lots of downtime, we finally admitted to each other that a)we would rather save the $30 it was going to cost us to get in, b)it was probably only going to be funny for 5 minutes anyway, and c) we would rather be eating taco bell and fucking. so that's just what we did. snuck out the door, ate nachos and got x-rated. i can't say i regret it, either.

i'm still sick.
i'm so in love with josh it's sickening.
we rule.

dance like a maniac

not only am i a packrat, but i collect a lot of stuff: records, books, vintage stuff, 45 carrying cases, GIG pity kitty/puppy paintings, etc. therefore you can see how working at a thrift store is both a blessing and a curse for me. i also have a thing for hawaiian and japanese things:


























one night when i was bored last week i was doing a search on ebay under "geisha" and i stumbled upon an ebay store called sweet heart sinner creations. i immediately fell in love. the couple who run this have such good taste in everything! most of the items are handmade necklaces and cigarette cases. the themes include horror movies, pulp novels, sideshow freaks, vintage halloween images, pinup girls, tattoo flash, old photography, etc. they even made ones with GIG puppies and kittens, and victorian post-mortem photographs of dead people and babies! I SWOONED! then again, i am somewhat morbid and unconventional in my taste. still, i would recommend this store to everyone (especially the tooth necklace to lacey!). here are three i picked out (and i'm sure i'll be going back for more):







i also got two that i don't have pictures of. one is a drawing of a siamese twin skeleton joined at the chest, and the other is a cartoon of a skeleton chasing a scantily clad pinup girl. they are awesome and i can't wait to get them in the mail.

they also have a myspace page and an etsy store, but the ebay store has the most stuff in it.

things have been great with josh. the other day we had a weird day where we went to a hockey game (sports? who likes THOSE?) and then we came home and danced. a lot. like idiots. first it was to the new zero boys record, then half a side of a soul record, and then some 45s that i dj'ed (like "nobody but me" by the human beinz!) we danced together like damn fools and i couldn't stop laughing. i am notorious for demanding that everyone around me dances but not doing it myself. i don't dance. but dancing with josh was hilarious and awesome.

speaking of josh...when he first started sleeping over my house 8 months ago, he never warned me that he talks in his sleep. at first he would just roll over and mumble some nonsense (often times incoherent). i would always try to bait him and get him to carry on conversations but it didn't work until recently. here are a few of my favorite:

josh (rolls over): DOG LIFE!
me: what?!
josh: dog years.
me: what are you talking about?
josh: it means unlimited.
me: WHAT means unlimited?
josh: you don't know how to count good! (rolls back over)


josh (rolls over): are you guys gonna put ed on the show?
me: did you just ask 'are you gonna put ed on the show?'
josh: yeah, that'd be sweet.
me: ed who?
josh: A VIKING!
(rolls back over)

josh (rolls over): i can't tell what's dead and what's not!
me: josh, why are you saying such creepy things to me?
josh (gets an angry look on his face): i'm talking about the damn things!
me: what damn things?
josh: the newspapers!
me: what newspapers?
josh: ohhhhhhh, you know, damn it!
(rolls back over)

i still think my favorite one is when josh rolled over and yelled out "PIE!" and then went back to sleep. josh doesn't even like pie.

also, i think this commercial is pretty much the best thing i've ever seen.