Virtual shotgun

So I have a friend in "the other Washington" (as we DC natives tend to think of it) who has been driving cab at night, and talking to him while he squires Puyallup's finest to and from taverns and casinos is like listening to reality TV with no picture. Conversations tend to be punctuated by statements like "Oh, the police are here. Can I call you back?" or "Hmm...I'm outside Mugs and Jugs, but I don't see my fare."

Can I just say much I do not miss getting loaded. Oy.

Today is Sunday and I am immensely grateful that it is a three-day weekend. In the true spirit of a person who relishes extremes I have gone from someone with no life whatsoever outside of school and waged work to a graduate who has booked every nanosecond of her life for the next three weeks. Thursday I go to Washington (where they invented coffee) to return Sunday. Monday my sister and her husband come here. They leave Wednesday. The next day I fly to Milwaukee (where they invented beer and motorcycles). Friday we fly to the Woods and Waters convention in the four-seater (a seat for me, one for Mark, one for Mindy, and one for Mindy's shoes). The week I return I speak in a meeting in Monrovia, have a dinner date with KD, and am going to a codger-rock punk show in Griffith Park (TSOL, the Dickies, DI, etc.). Yada yada yada...you get the picture. Middle ground? Oh, yeah, that's the spot you pass when moving from one extreme to the other. I am already anticipating the call to my sponsor on about June 20th to discuss my propensity to overbook myself.

As an aside, in explaining who Bob Mould is to a coworker this week, I ran across his blog. Something about the orange template must appeal to post-punk folks with a fondness for the nation's capitol.

Okay, that's all for now.

Reasons to move to Albuquerque

My best and oldest friend is moving to Albuquerque driven by the unending rain in Pittsburgh, a city second only to Seattle for rainy days per year. So this weekend she is going to a camp out and called to say, "We're hoping for rain because it might keep the locusts away." Yeah. There's a metaphor for you.

Axis of Eve

Let's hear it for protest panties!

Art Supplies of Mass Destruction

Be careful all you artists out there. This Counterpunch article lets you know what could happen if you need to call 911.

Michael tells me this was taken in Hungary, but were it not for the license plate, I could believe L.A. 

The pictures are appropos of nothing, really, except that they make me glad Bob does not have a horse. 

Not getting any younger

So we helped Bob pack yesterday afternoon/night, and now I sound like a bowl of rice krispies this morning. Every joint in my body is snap, crackling, and popping. I apparently slept the complete sleep of the dead--face down and immobile. Both of my arms fell asleep and when I woke up it was like someone had tied two heavy logs to my shoulders. It's hard to navigate the coffee when your arms are flopping around like over-sized sausages.

Went to a party in Griffith Park today for Pollyanne's birthday. Pictures of the pinata to follow. Let me say that LA is possibly the only place on earth that you would hear a goth decline a piece of fruit because she is watching her carbs. 

Beirut? Gaza? Nope: the Beverly Center. This from today's LA Times. Apparently many were upset their shopping was disrupted when LA's finest closed the mall to apprehend a suspect

The Arnold exhibit at the Hollywood wax museum. More reasons to love LA.

How you know you live in LA

Someone says "what weird weather" because it's overcast and the air is slightly damp.

I actually caught myself thinking this to myself this morning.

This is my letter to the world...

Having just completed a PhD and being unaccustomed to the notion of free time, I'm taking up blogging as a new project. Truly, I should have been documenting the progress toward the degree, which was epically absurd. The juju surrounding the dissertation was such that the document became known, to me, as "the Hope albatross."

Link of the day: the Voice's story on the $1000 omelet

Just in case you weren't sure that we really are in the decline of the American empire.