My bad, I never updated.

I took the job! Effective January 4, I will be a high school teacher. I can't wait to not work in an office.

Uh oh. I'm behind in reading up on LJ. Can you not go back more than 20 entries anymore? I went back to the second page, but then my only option was "Later," no more "Earlier"s. Did I mess something up in my preferences? Does anyone know?

In my grad school interviews all the faculty had nice things to say, but if they had one consistent criticism, it was that I need more figure drawing. I can take a note, so I found art classes downtown. I've been taking charcoal figure drawing for the last 4 weeks. I've really liked the classes and the teacher has had some really good recommendations. Next week will be my last class, and I'm kind of sad about that. Hopefully they'll have more classes in the fall. One of the models who comes looks kind of like my coworkers, which makes it a touch awkward for me when I run into the coworker in the hall and can't help but wonder if he really looks like that naked. But I can make it through that awkwardness.

What else. I took my parents to see Jersey Boys on Thursday night, it was their Mothers'/Fathers' day gift. They really liked it. I really liked it. Everyone wins! We saw the third-to-last show, and it's sold really well here. (It had a 3-week run, as opposed to the 1-week run the touring Broadway shows usually do.) I would say that the theater was at least 90% full, and 90% of those people were baby boomers. After every song the crowd would go wild. So that was pretty fun. I remember my dad singing Sherry to me when I was little, and my mom telling me about how he and his college roommate used to sing that song all the time. Sherry came out in 1962, when my dad was 8. So I was trying to figure out what songs that would be like for me. When I was 8, these songs were apparently hits. I don't know how reputable the list is, but I'm willing to accept it. There aren't many songs on there that I knew at age 8. Maybe not any. But I would say that by college I did know at least half of them. Ok. Not half, but at least a quarter. So it would be like me and Kristin Payton jamming out to Love Shack or Like a Prayer. Fair enough. I really hope that doesn't mean that in 45 years I'll be throwing my panties on stage at the musical based on the story of Bobby Brown, New Kids On the Block, or Milli Vanilli.

Also, I got a new cell phone. The hinge on my flip phone broke and I've been carrying around a gimp phone for the last 2 weeks, but the day finally came that my plan would let me get a new phone, so I replaced it with the newer version of the exact same phone. I really like it so far. And they fixed the positioning of the speakerphone button, so I don't hit it constantly now when I text. Anyway, in a salute to my old phone, I'm posting the best text messages I received on it (the ones that I saved, anyway.) I've left them anonymous, but feel free to own up to them if you want.

Crossword clue: "______ bag" I had so far: D _ _ _ _ E. Was very

disappointed to find out it was "DOGGIE".

I checked out your ass once but I was two weeks late turning it in and had

to pay a $2.80 fine so now I just download it.

I will check in the morning. Dad is having a ct scan now. For his weiner.

I just farted and my neck popped :(

Got one better: What's brown and rhymes with Snoop? Dr. Dre.

We could have weekend high five parties :)))))

I just hit douchebag factor 8. I ordered a Chai latte at Starbucks while

wearing the bluetooth headset.

Maybe my four favorite words to hear: "Thank you, Mr. Sponar."

Good Job, NC. I could almost see the shirts spinning around like

helicopters.

My mom's apparently on Facebook and I don't know what upsets me more- that

she's on Facebook or that she didn't friend me.

Perhaps, Lexie, you don't understand. I... drink your milkshake.

At least that picture you had in your head of me in daisy-dukes washing a

car has been forgotten.

. . .

"Only a dollar extra for hot wax, sir. Shall I?"

. . .

I got tired of washing my daisy dukes so I just got a pair tattooed on to

me. They're pretty realistic.

. . .

You're telling the guy with the denim-scissors and the inner-thing wax at

the ready? I've been sleeping with my bucket by the bed and my sponge

under my pillow.

After being cramped up in New York, there's nothing like driving in warm

weather with the sunroof open, windows down, and blasting some Toto.

I got spermicidal foam in my eye.

You know what concerns me? Asians wearing clinical face masks on my plane.

I better not get SIDS.

Real fast, here are some honorable mentions for my albums. In no particular order.

Kanye West- Late Registration

Steve Miller Band- Greatest Hits

Weird Al Yankovic- Running With Scissors

The J. Geils Band- Freeze Frame

The Beastie Boys- Hello Nasty

Steely Dan- Can't Buy A Thrill

Nine Inch Nails- Pretty Hate Machine

Spring Awakening- the Soundtrack

Great Expectations- the Soundtrack

Assassins- the Soundtrack

That's enough. There are lots of other albums that I really like and that are significant to me, but if I list many more, I'll end up just writing every CD I've ever liked. I would also like to give a small shout-out for Led Zeppelin. I like that band enough that they should be on the list, but I never listened to them in established albums, just mix tape compilations and on the radio, so I would have no basis for picking a favorite album.

#1 Pink Floyd- Dark Side of the Moon. I get goosebumps when I hear this album starting. I, of course, love every track, but get sad when I hear them on the radio, because to me it's not complete without the whole album. It's really soothing to me to listen to the whole thing. It's got the whole Wizard of Oz/Dark Side of the Rainbow thing as a perk if you ever get tired of just listening to it, and the laser shows at planetariums are really fun, too. But I don't really need all of that, most of the time I just want to listen to it by itself. There are lots of other Pink Floyd songs that I like, even whole albums that I like, but none will ever compare to this. I love the undeniably recognizable cover art. In Sound Design, we had to pick a song for which we could remember clearly the circumstances of first time we heard it and play it for the class. I picked Money off of this album. Several people in the class, after I was done talking about it, were like "no, let it ride" when the professor tried to turn it off. (Money is actually the only track name I know, since it gets played on the radio by itself most often.) I will always love Dark Side of the Moon. It makes everything better. I can't stay mad when I listen to it. And yet for all this gentleness, it's still a totally awesome rock album.

Will- I think you would like this album. It might be a little chill for you, but you could like it.

#2 Jump, Little Children- Magazine. I love this band. I think they're assholes for breaking up and I think they're tools for changing their name to just "Jump" before doing it. But I love them. I'm so glad I got to see them live before the end. I learned about them because of Improv!Able Cause's obsession with the song U Can Look. Then we all (we Furmanites) got really into the song Cathedrals. And then I heard My Guitar. And then I bought the album. defnitelyaj posted about this album too, I agree with all of her comments. I love Jay Clifford's voice and how personal it is. I love every song on this album, and my favorite song on it changes every time that I listen to it (although it is most likely to be My Guitar, Body Parts, B-13, or Say Goodnight.) I have their other albums, all of them, I think. The ones that come after are musically superior (DEFINITELY in the case of Between the Dim and the Dark) but the cohesiveness of this album blows Dim and Dark out of the water. It flows so well, and I love the clever significance of the title. This album has made me cry many times and might be my most listened to album in Kenya. I have played this CD for so many people, and all of them have liked it. I am, in fact, burning a mix CD of this band for someone RIGHT NOW. If you don't have this CD, you should probably buy it. If you ask nicely, I'll probably buy it for you.

Will- I'm pretty sure you already like this CD, although I doubt you have it. You have a pile of their songs on your mp3 player, though, I'm pretty sure.

#3 Queen- A Night At The Opera. I don't have any repeat bands in my list, so the fact that my bar-none favorite band is coming in at #3 should tell you something about how much I love the two albums yet to come. My love for Queen goes back a long way, and has a foundation made of Greatest Hits compilations. My knowledge of Queen albums as they were released is a very recent understanding, except for the couple of albums that my dad has that I grew up listening to. A Night At The Opera is one of them. I kind of feel like I have to explain why I haven't ranked this album higher. It works really well as a unit, it's full of really great songs, and I've listened to it more than probably any other album in the world. The only reason that I ranked this as low as I did is because I can tell you the individual names of songs on this album, which means that sometimes, sometimes, I listen to the songs separately. On the other two, I either don't know the individual track titles, or I never listen to them alone. A Night At The Opera goes in so many directions, the songs are so different from each other, but they do have kind of a vaudeville string holding them all together. Lots of people have this album, since it brought the world Bohemian Rhapsody, but that's one of my least favorite songs on the album. And I do think it's a great song. My favorite is Death on Two Legs, the piano intro is such great contrast to the totally diesel guitar and drums in the rest of the song. I love the surprise ukelele song, Good Company. I'm very fond of the 2 ballads, '39 and the Prophet's Song. I remember sitting with a discman, listening to the Prophet's Song over and over, writing the words down. (I later found the CD case and the lyric book within. Curse you, 6-disc changer cartridges! I never know about the CD cases!) I'm In Love With My Car is really different from most of their other songs (and is sung by the drummer!) And their version of God Save The Queen is really beautiful and simple. I really love this album. If I were the tattoo-getting sort, I'd seriously consider the cover art for a design. Great, great album.

Will- you probably know enough of the songs on this album just from knowing me and hanging out with me for years, so you could certainly make it through. Queen will never be your favorite band, but I think if you listened to it a few times, you'd find that you liked it more than you expected to.

#4 Traveling Wilburys- Vol. 1. When you look up the term "supergroup," there is a picture of the Traveling Wilburys. The group is composed of George Harrison (of the Beatles), Jeff Lynne (of ELO), Roy Orbison (of... Roy Orbison), Tom Petty (of the himself and the Heartbreakers), and Bob Dylan (BOB DYLAN.) They recorded the album in 10 glorious days. The album is outstanding. Their second album, Vol. 3, was recorded after Roy Orbison died. It's also good, but not as good. When I was making mix tapes to take to Kenya, I just put the whole album on a tape instead of trying to pick favorite songs. (This is true of #3-1 on my list, also.) They're not the flashiest of bands, but everyone who has heard of them seems to love them. They were definitely just jamming when they wrote their songs, which makes the lyrics not at all pretentious and extra-fun. The album is just so... comfortable. It's like cold beer in the shade on a hot day. It's like board game night with your friends. It's like pizza for breakfast. I can't pick a favorite, I love all the songs. I love hearing all of their voices individually. This album is SO GOOD. So good. Every song. So good.

Will- Everyone would like this album, so you should, too. I think that it wouldn't fit in with the rest of your taste especially well, but I think you would end up liking it a lot.

So good.

#5 The Rocky Horror Picture Show- The Soundtrack. This album is extremely special to me. I remember very clearly the first time I heard it. I was sitting at dinner when we lived in Tokyo, my family was all eating together, and my mom said the word "anticipation." My father dashed into the living room and put on the Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack so that he could hear "I see you shiver. With antici-

pation." I was immediately hooked. (Also, kudos to my dad for 1- owning the CD, and 2- not being afraid to play it for his 10-, 8-, and 7-year-old children.) I listened to the soundtrack constantly after this. I had no idea that it was for a movie, or that I would ever be able to see that movie, and I didn't do the greatest job of understanding what was going on in the songs, which is probably ok, since I was 10. I do remember finding the CD case and being absolutely scandalized by some of the pictures on it at about age 12. (Our CDs all lived in 6-disc cartridges rather than alone in their cases, so I had to go actively looking for it to see it.) It was the first musical I listened to that wasn't in the Sound of Music vein. While the movie is hardly a cinematic masterpiece and the singing is not the greatest conceivable, it has a very very special place in my heart. When we moved back to the States, we lived with family friends (the Smits!) for about 3 months while our house was being renovated. They had a recording of the movie WITH THE PEOPLE IN FRONT ACTING IT OUT. So the first way I ever saw it, although on film, was with the whole experience, rather than just the movie. For my (16th?) birthday a bunch of my friends and I went and saw it live for the first time at the Rialto, which turned into a pretty regular affair through my high school years. I have so many items of underclothing that I bought specifically to wear to Rocky. I have plenty of friends who have been much more involved in the show, including my brother, who was (and occasionally still is) a cast member, but I feel my relationship with the show is much older than most. It may be a milder love affair, but it's a pretty solid one. Anyway, this album is on my list independent of my love of the movie. If there were no movie, just the soundtrack, I would still be very, very fond of this album. Favorite track: Sweet Transvestite.

Will- if you don't like this, we're not friends any more. If you prefer the soundtrack to the Broadway stage show, I will understand, but I will also be sad.

Friday night I went to a concert in Chapel Hill. I saw Midtown Dickens, Paleface, and Holy Ghost Tent Revival. I'm going to try and keep my rhapsody short, since I'm wearing myself out writing about albums all the time and reading other people's entries, but the show was fantastic.

I bought the Midtown Dickens' CD- they were brilliant. Will- one of the singers might be the girl of your dreams. When I got there, she was playing accordion. The third or so song that they did, she put it down and picked up a trombone. And she sang and played... banjo, maybe? And guitar? And she was really cute. Anyway, they were great. They played the largest variety of instruments I've ever seen for a 5-person band, and the 2 men didn't even change instruments, they stayed stuck to the mandolin and upright bass. It was like watching my friends play Rock Band. Every time the song changed, people got up and rotated instruments. I've never seen the drummer get up and pick up another instrument for a song, and one of the singers stand in on drums! And they played the spoons and this thing that I don't know the name for, and trumpets, and guitars, and banjos, and a saw with a string bow. Wow. They had a very folksy sound, which I love, and the singers were wonderful. I'll have to pay attention to them in the future.

Paleface was pretty good. My lack of enthusiasm is really more because their sound didn't fit as well to my tastes as the other 2 bands. I will say that for 2 people, they put out a LOT of sound. And they were the second band of the night with a female drummer, that is nice to see from time to time. She kind of looked like Amy Sedaris, which made me fond of her. They were great, just not my favorite.

Holy Ghost Tent Revival blew me away. There were like 6 of them on stage (maybe only 5?), and they were a sweaty, bleeding mess by the end of it. They were AMAZING. Their sound was really polished. They were really cranking it out, but if I closed my eyes, I could believe that it was a studio recording, almost, for how well balanced and executed it was. They had so much energy and were musically very, very good. They're playing on Thursday at Blind Tiger in Greensboro and on Friday at Double Door Inn in Charlotte, if you read this and live close to either of those, HIGHLY recommend seeing them. They'll be back in Raleigh on the 25th, I will try to see them again. I tried to buy the CD, but they were sold out. Seriously, go see them if you can. So good.

And then yesterday I went to Kings Dominion for my company's family day. It rocked the pants off of last year's family day picnic in a park. I hadn't been to an amusement park since we went to Carowinds one summer in college, so I was way overdue for some rollercoasters. Kings Dominion is my favorite amusement park I've been to so far, but I'm basing that off of a fairly short list of places. They have a new ride, the Dominator, which I loved. Bevin and James went with me (<3 <3 thanks guys!) and we had a blast. We were worn-out mofos by the end of the night. The weather was perfect and the lines were surprisingly short. The Volcano was the only one that took a long time to wait for, really. I like the Volcano, but passed on a second trip through it, the blast-off portion was a bit more than I could take late in the day. I'm wussing out a little in my old age- I didn't want to do the Drop Tower or the Sky Flyer. Those free-falls freak me out a little. I think just accepting that is the right step for me. I've done both in the past, I know I can make it through, but the anticipation of it is a little too much for me, or at least it was yesterday. Anyway, I'm really worn out and tired, but had a wonderful weekend.

#6 Lyle Lovett- Pontiac. If I were seeing my posting of this list 5 years ago, I would have though this was someone else's entry. I knew that I liked one Lyle Lovett song, but knew that he was a country singer and figured I wouldn't like anything else by him. The only things I knew about Lyle Lovett were that in Kissing Jessica Stein, they refer to him as "sexy-ugly," and that he'd been married to Julia Roberts. I don't remember why I bought this album. I probably read something about him and figured I could spring for the couple of dollars it cost to buy it used. I may have figured that since I liked Chris Isaak so much, and he had kind of a similar sound, that I should give Lovett a try. Maybe I just wanted to own a legal copy of the song "If I Had A Boat," which I undoubtedly illegally downloaded in college. Whatever the case, it was EXTREMELY uncharacteristic of me to purchase it. I put the CD on in my car, and I listened to it over and over and over again. Every single song on the CD is so good and so different from what I expected. Eddie From Ohio performed "If I Had A Boat" at a concert, and after the song, Robbie says "Is that just a beautiful song, or what? I wish I wrote that." Lyle Lovett's songs are all SO GOOD. The album is this perfect balance of sentimental and clever and sometimes a little bit twisted. Sweet and sad and funny back-to-back-to-back. I can't pick a favorite song. If I Had A Boat? Give Back My Heart? Walk Through The Bottomland? L.A. County? She's No Lady? She's Hot To Go? They're all so good! The songs are pretty simple, not a whole lot of distraction to take away from they lyrics and his voice. And he's got a fantastic voice. He sounds nothing like what I thought "country" meant. I've bought other Lyle Lovett albums, and they're good too, but Pontiac is really remarkable.

If you've ever met me in person, you know that I am one pale MF. And of all of me, not counting the parts they teach you in school not to go showing off in public, my legs are by far the most light-reflecting. My arms and face have a teensy bit of color and a fair dose of freckles. Generally that doesn't bother me, but in shorts and miniskirts season (all seasons are miniskirt seasons! Ok, miniskirts without hosiery season) I get a little self-conscious about the blinding pallor of my legs. It doesn't especially offend me to look at them, but judging by the near-constant commentary of people I know well, casually, or barely at all, it offends everyone else. So I make an inconsistent effort to artificially pigment my legs.

I've tried a number of products over the years (before you ask, no, the sun wasn't one of them) with varying and often hilarious degrees of success. I still remember well the pump-spray fake tan of my high school years, which was always darkest (by which I really only mean least pale) in amoeba-like clumps where I sprayed it before I rubbed it around. Recently I tried out the "Sun fresh sunless foam" by Neutrogena, which smells pleasantly fruity, and gets an A for not being very noticeable. After applying it, people still think that I'm pale, they just no longer feel the need to alert others within earshot of me, and when they do comment, it's without that note of panic in their voice I've become so accustomed to. So I like it.

But then I saw a commercial for something that almost stopped my heart. Nivea Sun-Kissed Beautiful Legs (Shave Minimizing.) Remember in like, 2002, when Jergens got everyone obsessed with shave-minimizing lotions? I was WAY excited by them (I have no idea if they actually minimize the amount you shave, but in my head they sure do,) and when I moved back from Kenya and went to buy new moisturizer, I COULDN'T FIND ANY. All the fads I love disappear! But when I saw this Nivea commercial, I knew my day had come again! Two birds! One stone! So I went out and spent like 10 dollars on a bottle of lotion. I tried it out this morning. It smells great. It made my legs very soft. ... and tangerine orange. I have splotchy, streaky, tv-weatherman-face legs. The pigment set in gradually over the course of the day, so around lunchtime I thought my legs looked great. Then I had to go out on the work floor, so I put pants on (bye, miniskirt :( ) but when I got back and took the pants back off, I saw the final (I hope it's final!) shade. My legs are hilarious. Who knows if it will minimize the amount I need to shave. If I apply it more than once, I'll look like I belong on Sesame St. as Ernie's sister. I doubt it would photograph well, or I'd post. Will it change what I wear on the lower half of my body? Probably not. I want everyone to enjoy the folly that comes of caring what other people think.

#7- Oh Brother, Where Art Thou- the Soundtrack. This almost breaks the rules on a couple of levels. One: it's a collection of songs with different purposes by different artists rather than an intentionally composed album. Two: I don't actually love all of the songs on this album. I skip tracks when I listen to it. BUT, One: many of the songs were written for the soundtrack, most were recorded specially for the soundtrack (if not all?) and all work so well as they are that there is no question that they are meant to be together. AND Two: I like all of the songs well enough, and certainly respect them, there are just other songs on the soundtrack I'm much more excited to get to. EVERYONE had this album. It won a Grammy for album of the year in 2001 (sayeth Wikipedia.) It made Alison Krauss a household name for people who weren't hip to the bluegrass or folk scene. It made everyone think that George Clooney might actually be a good singer. (He's not, or at least not good enough to actually be the person singing in the movie or on the soundtrack.) It made me think that Emmylou was a cool name. The soundtrack is perfect for an incredible movie, but it's amazing in its own right. It's personally significant to me because it really started my interest in bluegrass music. (My interest is not terribly well-educated, but I have enthusiasm.) I was sad when the Appalachian music fad ended in the hippie-chic pocket of pop culture, but it all comes rushing back whenever I put on this CD. Where else, other than a Tracey Ullman sketch, can you hear a saw played like a cello? Where else, other than any nursing home on Sunday morning (or in the car with me and AJ,) can you hear I'll Fly Away sung with such jubilation? It's brilliant. Thank you, T Bone Burnett. This album brings to light and respect and popularity a genre usually reserved for Appalachian Studies majors and people who still go outside to poop.

Will- I'm pretty sure that you already like this, although I am not sure as to the degree that you share my enthusiasm.

#8 The Who- Tommy. This album certainly achieved critical acclaim, so I don't need to go on about the musical merit, I don't think. It's famous as hell for being the first real rock opera (a genre I support wholeheartedly) and it's two solid discs of pure thematic plunge out of your comfort zone if you're a normal person. I started listening to it before I ever knew what it was about. I was in elementary school singing along with songs that were way way beyond my scope of understanding. It was the Wicked Uncle Ernie song that I first noticed was ... off. The songs are all so good, and mostly so wrong. This is one of the first albums that I started viewing as a single unit, rather than picking out the songs that I liked best and only listening to those. It's necessarily unified because of the plot, but it goes so far beyond the bare minimum in its lyrics and themes. The Who is a spectacular band, and I think that this is their most spectacular album. I finally saw the stage show right after college, and the performance I saw, while awful, made me love it all the more. I think a lot of my love for this album comes from the fact that I have been listening to it since I was really young, but I'll never get tired of it.

Will- you would like this, if you don't already.

#9 Fiona Apple- Tidal. I deliberated over which album to list, as I adore all three of her albums. I find them all very rich and all very different. But Tidal came first, and I've listened to it more than almost every other album I own, except for maybe 3 of the other albums on this list. It was her first album and she was still really green. Her songs are maybe too emotional and angsty, but that's probably why I loved them so much as a high schooler. It's the first album I ever bought with my own money. Every track is a keeper. She's amazing in the studio, which is good, because she's a bit crap live. I think her later albums are more polished and deserve higher critical praise, but this one sold the best because of her underwear video for Criminal, and it sucked me in as an angsty, petulant teen.

Will, you have no interest in this album, aside from potential nostalgia for other songs that were on the radio when you were in love with the Spice Girls.

Ok, I'm going to give it a try. I'll list what are, in my opinion, the 10 best albums ever. For me. Personally. I tried to stay away from a bunch of albums that I liked for the same reasons and to spread it out through my music-listening history, but they had to be all albums that I will still jump at the chance to listen to, albums that I don't skip a single track when listening. Here goes.

# 10 The Raconteurs- Broken Boy Soldiers. This is the youngest CD on this list to my collection. I know that a lot of people prefer Consolers of the Lonely, but I think that the complexity of the songs is much more interesting on this album. It's a phenomenal band, and an exciting one in that they're still recording. I really love Jack White, and this is my favorite of his manifestations. The lyrics are fascinating and often creepy. The dynamics and pacing show good range. Steady As She Goes is near-perfect and a wonderful way to start the album. By the time I get to Blue Veins I'm in love all over again, no matter how long it's been. If you've received a mix CD from me in the last year and a half, it probably includes the song Level, which I think is brilliant, and which is also the shortest song on the album, allowing for more songs on the mix CD. (Quantity is Job One when I make CDs.) The whole album is gritty and almost garagey, without being garbage or a feedbacky mess. They almost sound like the Beatles sometimes, singing very un-Beatles songs. The recording acoustics are really interesting and different. I bought the CD on the strength of Steady As She Goes and just left it on a constant loop in my car for weeks. It's rare that I dive right into a CD like that.

A few thoughts:

I went and saw Up tonight (in 3-D!) with my brother and Bevin and James and their friend Scott. It was fantastic. I figured it would be good, but was only mildly interested in seeing it, as the last few children's movies I've seen have been good, but not life-altering for me. I was totally blown away by it. It was funnier than the previews, it made me cry like FOUR TIMES, it was visually lush, and it was just about the most charming, touching thing I've ever seen. It was mostly predictable, very family-safe, and saccharine-sweet at times, but it managed to do all of that in a way that didn't seem cliche or reduce its value. Robert compared it to Big Fish. I liked it more than Big Fish, but Big Fish fell victim to the problem I always seem to have when Tim Burton makes a movie that's not creepy. Anyway, I loved it, and I thought the 3-D effects were totally worth it.

Then we played Rock Band, which is always fun. I haven't played seriously in a while, and I found that my right arm got sore after a lot of playing guitar, so I sang and drummed for most of the evening. Still trying to make that transition in drums to hard. It's slow going. But the singing was fine, passing songs just fine on hard and expert.

Last weekend I went to visit Beth and James and new baby Owen. The trip was great, although I wish I'd stayed a bunch longer. But the scheduling was good as it was for keeping me alert during the extensive driving required for the trip. Beth and Owen look fantastic, for all they've been through in the last few weeks. Beth looks beautiful and glowy and is delightfully maternal. And I'm already in love with little Owen. He's still at that age where all babies look like tiny old men. But he's cute and will only get cuter. And James is about as proud a father as you could imagine, which should not surprise anyone who knows James.

Tomorrow I'm going to see the ballet Beauty and the Beast. It's supposed to be quite good. I want to see some movies during the week at the $1.50 theater. I'm going to a local concert on Friday and to Kings Dominion on Saturday for my work's Family Day. It will be a busy week.

Lately it's seemed like all I do is work. Which is confusing, since I've had the least overtime in the last few months that I've ever had since I started working for the company. I think it may just seem like I'm there all the time because I get up so early to go to the gym each morning, so I really should go to bed between 10 and 11. I guess that cuts my day a little shorter than it always used to be. The gym is going well, I had 2 weeks of kind of patchy attendance because I was house-sitting nowhere near my gym and then I got a mole removed on my foot that was healing really slowly and interfering with my running, but it's healed up enough now that I don't have any excuse. I need to start piling on the distance so that I can make it to 10k shape by fall. I have yet to pick a race yet, so if anyone wants to run one in the fall, let me know! Races are fun with other people.

I'm on the way to being lined up to design costumes for my high school's drama production next school year. More details as they come into place. The grad schools seemed to agree that I needed more drawing training, so I think the other thing I'll do is take some art classes instead of really trying to find tons of shows to do. But if anyone hears of a show around Raleigh that needs a designer, let me know, I could still use the experience even if I'm trying to focus more on training.

I want to go out dancing sometime soon. Anyone? Anyone?

I've been listening to the In The Heights soundtrack a lot lately, Will gave it to me when we went to Paul's wedding. I love it. So many good songs.

I think that's about it for now. Someday I'd like to start posting stuff that isn't just recaps of the recent, but I don't know if that will be any time soon. I want to post about my 10 favorite albums. I think favorite albums take entirely different consideration than favorite songs or favorite artists. Only one of my ten favorite albums would be by my favorite band, and I don't think it would be anywhere near #1. So feel free to comment or post your thoughts as I try to gather mine.

I have a few odds and ends to update. First of all, in the grad school arena, everybody but Carnegie Mellon has gotten back to me, so no grad school next year. One thing I have learned through this is that I do not want to go to Virginia Tech. Let me back up a little.

At the end of last year I was trying to figure out which schools I liked, and I came across Virginia Tech, because they said they had an MFA in Scenography. I called the head of that department, and it immediately became clear that when they said scenography, they meant scene design. Oh well. He gave me the name of the costume person, and I emailed her. She said she was definitely interested and that I should come up for an interview. I asked if that could be done on the weekend, as I have very few vacation days left, since I took most of them to do a show. She said no, it would really be best if I could come on a weekday. Ok, fine. I take a vacation day and drive up to Blacksburg. I visit campus, I like it, I sit and talk with their costume designer, she's great, I meet some students, they're friendly, if a little aggressive, and she introduces me to other staff members, who also interview me. I feel like the day is going great and that I'm totally impressing them. At the end of a very full day, she says "we're not sure that we're taking a costume student next year, but we haven't decided yet. We'll meet next week to determine it, and you'll hear from us." A week passes. I hear nothing. 2 weeks pass, I send her an email asking if they need any other information and thanking them for the lovely visit. A month passes, I finally hear back, they say "I just wanted to let you know that, as I mentioned to you during your visit, I am not taking a costume design student for fall of 2009." This was never mentioned to me, and the response makes it seem as though I should have known it. I am very peeved that they had me drive up there if, in fact, they knew that they weren't taking a student this year. And if they didn't know, and she just confused her dates and thought that she had already known when I came to visit because she forgot to email me back when she said she would, I am also peeved, because that's not my job to remember to get back to students I've interviewed in a timely manner. I feel like I've been jerked around and am very irritated that the had so little regard for my time. And why would they not get back to me for a whole month? If they'd said "A costume student was not our first choice given current staffing, but if we'd made an offer that had been declined, we would have taken you. However, all of our offers were accepted," I would have understood. But just leaving me hanging and then acting as though they told me what to expect in the first place? This is me: annoyed.

In other news, I rapturously await the premier of Star Trek, but am saddened that I don't know who I'll see it with, as my anticipated date will unfortunately be in Florida, attending to his family. (Much love to Robert and his family, btw.) So if anyone out there is nerdy enough to love it with me, let me know. I'd be willing to see a midnight showing, if they're doing that.

I hung out with some friends from high school a week and a half ago, that was kind of great. I didn't know either of them that well in high school, as we didn't have many classes together, but I always liked both of them. We went out to dinner, which gave us a great opportunity to get to know each other more. (Well, me to know them, they're practically sisters.) So that was nice. And this past weekend I went out with my brother and his girlfriend for her birthday. I was kind of out of my comfort zone there; his friends are not the kind of people I would be friends with on my own. They're all nice enough, I just would never even meet them, and we have nothing in common. But I made it through the night just fine and discovered a great Mexican restaurant in the process.

And I went to Denver for Paul and Johanna's wedding, which was splendid. They both looked fantastic. The service was very nice and the reception rocked. Seeing Karl and Kristin and Paige was ok, too. And meeting some awesome new people. I give Colorado an A.

That's probably all I haven't posted about that I still remember.

I'm beginning to suspect that I didn't get into any grad schools. I had thought that my interviews went well, and maybe they did, but evidently not well enough. I'm clearly not anyone's first choice, anyway, or they would have contacted me by now. This makes me sad. It's also very strange for me (cockiness alert) to not get into things I apply for. My grades are good, I generally interview well, and my references were fantastic. Which means that my portfolio wasn't good enough. (This is certainly possible, speaking as someone who has seen my portfolio.) I've been thinking about it, and I have come to the conclusion that it will not be the end of the world if I don't get in this year. I know, I know, some of you have already told me this. But I have now told myself this with the full realization that it really is possible that nobody wants me. My reasons for saying that it is not the end of the world (other than the fact that the world does not revolve around me and will continue to turn, no matter how much I hate my job or am unfulfilled and/or challenged by anything I've spent much time on lately) are:

1) Maybe it will not be a bad thing for me to have to work really hard at what I want. And it took Rusty Smith 2 tries to get into Yale, right? Maybe this will build character.

2) This gives me some time to look at and improve what I saw as weaknesses in my work when I was interviewing and seeing other people's portfolios. (Assuming I ever get my portfolio back from Yale.)

3) This gives me time to look at schools that I dismissed for frivolous reasons because I was under the gun for time the last time around.

4) This is really not the economic time to be walking away from a job, especially when you are the ONLY employed member of your family.

5) Maybe another year will help me figure out what to do with the persistent fear that this isn't what I want to do. It's the only thing I can imagine doing that would make me happy, but sometimes I just get scared.

Anyway, I'm posting this on the internet not because I want anyone to reply with "don't worry kiddo, you're gonna get in somewhere," but because I would like suggestions to help me with any of the goals I have expressed above and for things I can do to improve myself as a designer that don't involve quitting my job. Or funny non sequiturs. Or pictures of hot dogs.

Haven't posted in a while. Recap:

Did costume design at Anderson U. Came out great.

Finished my taxes.

Did not get into Yale.

Declined admission to SUNY Purchase.

Still waiting on the other 3.

Instituted a "nobody under 25" rule.

Went to goth club.

Joined a gym.

Got a raise.

Started catching up on lots of missed tv, now taking suggestions of new shows to watch. So far a fan of the Unusuals and Better Off Ted.

Nortel finally laid my dad off, so if anyone knows of anything, let me know and I'll pass it on to him. He's got the computer-savvs. And a thirty-plus year history at a tanking company. Keep us in your prayers please.

I totally forgot the surprise mystery highlight of the Krispy Kreme Challenge! As I was leaving the KK hut (right after I yakked,) I saw the people walking in front of me stop and look at something in the middle of the road where everyone was running. So I jogged by and looked down. It was a pair of ladies' underwear. Skimpy black ones. All inside-out-y like they'd been peeled off. In the middle of the running area.

How did they get there?

I have a few practical explanations, but I'd rather hear some other suggestions.

Ok. I got to the belltower at 8:30, much earlier than expected because the traffic was much lighter than I thought it would be. I have to give the planners an A for how well most of this went off. They blocked a major downtown street and parts of several others, and it all seemed pretty smooth. Anyway, I'd already picked up my race number last night, so I picked up my timing chip and wandered around. I am SO GLAD that I brought my camera, lots of people were running in costume. You'll have to look on facebook if you want the highlights, though, I'm not messing with posting them on here. A lot of guys were running in suits. And there were a LOT of superheroes. At one point I got to see The Flash helping Wolverine with pinning his number to his shirt. I thought that was nice.

Anyway, I ran the race about like I expected in terms of my running performance. The first half I had a pretty good speed and walked once or twice on the uphills, but otherwise kept it going pretty well. The second half I ran most of and powerwalked the rest. I didn't get queasy once I started running again until just before I reached the finish line.

Now let's talk about the middle part. I was hoping that I'd be able to eat those doughnuts pretty fast. I don't know why I would have thought that. They weren't hot (uh oh.) and after the first 6, which go down pretty easy, it was like hitting a brick wall. That's about when I found my dad, who proceeded to photograph the entire wretched affair. Also Kirston and Rob Barton of Peace Corps Kenya were there to watch, which I REALLY appreciated. They drove all the way from Carrboro to watch a bunch of people throw up. Anyway, I plodded slowly through my second 6. I entered as a Challenger, which meant I had to eat all 12 before I could start running again. The last 2 took like 10 minutes. I finally put the last bite in my mouth (still no vomit) and started jogging while chewing. Then I thought about puke, and it was game over. I lost the bite I was chewing and the previous bite. That was it, though, so I think my net doughnut consumption was about 11.5 doughnuts. But the 30 minutes or so that it took me to eat those piles of sugar really hurt my overall time, so I regret to announce that I was not successful in my attempt at the Krispy Kreme Challenge.

And no way am I doing that again. Not as a Challenger. I might enter again in the Casual category where you can eat as many or as few doughnuts as you want, but never again for the challenger. The ride home was kind of rough. And I hurled about half a dozen when I finally reached my house.

It tasted like doughnuts :(

That said, I'm really glad that I did it. There were 5200 registered runners, so at 16 dollars a pop, that's a nice pile of money for the Chapel Hill Children's Hospital. ESPN was there, so watch for that, jock-types. It was really fun, aside from the nausea. It might be a few years before I eat another doughnut, no matter what brand.

I have my race number for the Krispy Kreme Challenge. I went all in and am a "challenger," not a casual runner, which means I'm not allowed to leave the Krispy Kreme until I've eaten all 12. I'm feeling good about it tonight. I've been running 4 miles in 40 minutes including the parts where I walked for a bit, so I feel moderately confident about my speed. I'm worried about my eating time, as experience has shown that if I am any kind of food competitor, I'm not a sprinter. But if they're hot, I figure I can get them down pretty fast, and hopefully shake off some of the glaze to cut into the TWO THOUSAND FOUR HUNDRED CALORIES that a dozen packs. I just hope I can trick my body into running 2 more miles before it realizes I've eaten almost twice as many calories as I'm supposed to have in a day. In the form of sugar and starch only. This time tomorrow I hope to be out of my coma and proudly wearing a green finisher t-shirt. Cross those fingers!

The Krispy Kreme Challenge is this weekend. (Click here for Hot Now!) I've been wanting to do this ever since I heard about it, it's just the right combination of physical activity and disgusting, push-the-limits eating challenges. So it's perfect for me. I just need to find someone to do it with me. Bob let me down by actually caring about his heart (boo) and everyone else I've asked seems to have plans already. So it looks like I'm doing it alone. This is a final plea to anyone to would like to run 4 miles and eat 12 doughnuts. Or run 4 miles and eat 0-11 doughnuts. Or just watch me try to do it. Please. Don't make me do this alone.

Happy birthday, James! You might even still be awake to read this!

Rest In Peace, Ricardo Montalbán. The world will miss you and your pecs. They always looked real to me.

My dad is home safely from the hospital. So far so good on recovery, but the really painful part for him is still to come.

I've fallen in love with the styling of the Volvo C30. I want one. I haven't wanted a car for its look this much since the c. 1999 Eclipse.

Anything else? I think not.

On Saturday I went home to go to a wedding. On Sunday I drove back to Greenville, with a scheduled stop in Spartanburg to have dinner with my brother David. About 8 miles before Sparkle City, I got rear-ended on 85 by a very nice couple with a toddler. Nobody was injured and everybody was really pleasant about the whole thing in person. Ever since then I've been living the utter nightmare of dealing with insurance. I would like to give their insurance company, Allstate, a big thumbs down for being ludicrously difficult to deal with, inconsistent, and hanging up on me twice. (Probably by accident, but still.) It's a good thing I never use all my cell phone minutes, because I've spent the last 4 days on the phone non-stop. Right now it's looking like they're going to call the accident a total loss, even though it's only my trunk that's messed up, and I'm feeling really helpless and angry and really don't understand why I have to go through all of this if it wasn't my fault. Whoever came up with that "you're in good hands with Allstate" slogan is an asshole.

Man, I was gonna try not to want the new Guitar Hero, but then I saw this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_in_Guitar_Hero_World_Tour

AND now I'm all pissy because I looked at the songs that are in the XBox360 version of Guitar Hero 2 that aren't on the PS2 version. I WANT THEM. RICK DERRINGER IS IN THAT LIST. AND THE GREATEST SONG EVER DONE BY DEEP PURPLE, HUSH.

</cranky>

Good news! When I go home to Cary for a wedding in mid-October, I can vote at an early voting station instead of by absentee ballot! This will be the first presidential election I've voted in person for.

I'm almost done with my renderings for Menagerie. They're not terribly professional-looking, but they pretty clear about the look I'm going for. I want to try and fuss with them and get them all into digital format so I can manipulate them a little. I was nervous about drawing again after a really long time of not doing anything remotely like it, and it's been a little rocky, but not as bad as I'd feared.

Friday night Phoebus came over and we watched Charlie Bartlett and ate pizza. Amy came home after the movie when we were trying to learn the dances from Hairspray according to the tutorial in my DVD. Phoebs left to pick up Tyler from work, and Amy and I tried the tutorial. We both suck at both Ladies' Choice and the Peyton Place After Midnight. And this was my third time watching the tutorial. I figure if I watch it every day for the next 3 weeks, I might be able to do a decent "camel walk." Anyway, then we suddenly became compelled to do Sweatin' to the Oldies, which Amy has on VHS. That started a quest to get her VCR hooked up, then a 2 AM drive to Walmart to buy a universal remote. Finally, around 2:45, we got home and set it up, and did Sweatin' to the Oldies 2. I'd never seen any of these videos, but they were obviously a substantial part of Amy's middle school days. She was hilariously committed to doing all the moves right, which made it really hard for me to do the moves right, as I was laughing really hard. If we have a stalker in the backyard, he thinks we're really weird now.

I want to have a Halloween party. Anyone? Anyone? I've never gotten really into dressing up for Halloween before, which seems extremely out of character for me, but is nevertheless true. So... who's in? Halloween? Come on. It'll be a first for me. It doesn't need to be on Halloween itself.

Amanda's wedding was last weekend. It was amazing. It went perfectly and Amanda was beautiful and Chris looked wonderful and the groomsmen behaved themselves and I didn't bungle my toast too bad and we all danced and ate and drank, but none of it to excess. I'm glad that it went so well because I know that Amanda had been stressing about it. And seeing everyone who came in was fantastic. I need to get my act together and start visiting people instead of waiting for all of them to come to me.

Anything else? Not for now.

Amanda and I had a free preview to Eagle Eye tonight starring Shia LaHolesEvenStevensTransformers. It was enjoyable enough, fairly predictable and perhaps a little too loud (or are we just too old?), but overall pretty fun. Except for the part where we both decided that large drinks were in order. We each had to go to the bathroom at least 3 times during our trip, and both of us are worried that we did some sort of damage to our urinary tracts. Why do I ever look at a soft drink cup the size of my thigh and think that it will be a good idea to drink it all in a room that I'll have to climb over people in order to get out of?

Highlight of evening (other than finally getting to the bathroom any of the 3 times that I went): When we saw a man walk in to sit down wearing a very nice suit, and after I commented on it, Amanda said "he's just really excited to see Shia LaBeouf. He holds him in very high regard and has dressed up for him." Or something to that effect.

The weekends are so much longer in South Carolina! Or maybe they just feel longer when I don't loathe everything. On Saturday defnitelyaj and korolyeva525 went with me to see Burn After Reading. I enjoyed the movie a lot and laughed very hard, but did not think that it was the strongest Coen venture I've seen. But before the movie started, something truly remarkable happens. Whenever Amanda sees those claw machines for grabbing toys (like the kind the small kid crawls into in the email forward) she has to play it and is unnaturally good at actually getting a toy. So they have one at Camelot and she tries, and lo and behold: she is the proud new owner of a stuffed pirate. So Kells tries. And gets Curious George! So I try AND GET BERT (of Bert and Ernie.) Wow! Triple success in the claw machine category!

Anyway. Then Amy made a really great vegetable bake and almond encrusted chicken for dinner, and we went to see Copenhagen at the Playhouse. The staff did a show this year to get another show on the mainstage and to take up some of the extra time that the new semester system has given the season. I've seen Copenhagen once before in Massachusetts- that production was horrible. But I've been consistently impressed with this show. (I've seen it twice now. And might go for a third this week.) They do a really good job with a really tough script.

Yesterday I went to church with Amy. The church was beautiful and the Mass was pretty normal, but it did confirm for me that I'm definitely not Catholic. Not really a surprise. Then I went home and drank some beers and made dark chocolate truffles and watched Slings & Arrows (which is excellent) and started crying when they showed scenes from Lear. That's the second time that this show as done that to me because of Shakespeare. The first season does Hamlet, which is my favorite, so of course I got a little choked up. The second season, which I haven't seen, covers Macbeth, which I like, but doubt that it could get me terribly emotional. The last season is King Lear, which I never cared for before, but after the little bits in season 3 of Slings, I may need to give it another read.

I had a small freak-out about what I'm going to do with myself in a career sense while I tried to look at grad programs online and became discouraged. I'm having a hard time lately convincing myself that I really want to do museum studies, even though I'm loving working at the museum, so I'm getting really frustrated about it. Anyway.

Then I went to Amanda's and played Rock Band and Chris made us pasta with sausages. The end.

Now it's my turn at the lyrics thing! I've never done one of these before. Most of my Furman friends have already posted this, but for the benefit of anyone else, I'm putting my mp3 player on random and posting the first line of each song that plays.

Your job: be the first to correctly identify the title and performer(s) of each song. I guess you're not supposed to search engine the lyrics. I'll strikethru the ones that have been guessed right and credit them.

Here goes:

1. You've got a hold on me/you're messing up the screen

2. Beneath the peat bog moon I wanna croon with you

3. Percussion. Strings. Winds. Words. Kiss the Girl from the Little Mermaid- Robert of final_destiny

4. Find yourself a girl and settle down, live a simple life in a quiet town Steady As She Goes by the Raconteurs- Robert of final_destiny

5. Work it/make it/do it/makes us Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger by Daft Punk- James of bethiejames

6. Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee's a hypnotist Hypnotist of Ladies by They Might Be Giants- James of bethiejames

7. In many ways, they'll miss the good old days Someday by the Strokes- Chess of checkmate107

8. Deathwish in the fading light/Headlight pointing through the night Deathwish by the Police- James of vorzakk

9. What will one day become of us/We'll grow as grass under their feet

10. As he came into the window was the sound of a crescendo Smooth Criminal as performed by Alien Ant Farm- James of vorzakk

11. You're dirty and sweet, clad in black, don't look back, and I love you

12. Hey little guy, why so blue? Original Musical from [title of show]- Will of bobandwill

13. If I should stay I would only be in your way I Will Always Love You by Dolly Parton- James of bethiejames

14. Whenever life gets you down, keeps you wearing a frown Enormous Penis by DaVinci's Notebook- Amanda of tattermask

15. It's not you, she said, it's just that life's so hard See Her Smile from Tick Tick... Boom- Will of bobandwill

16. You've got a thing or two to learn about me, baby Blame It On Your Heart by Patty Loveless- Amanda of defnitelyaj

17. I feel so bad, I got a worried mind, I'm so lonesome all the time

18. God? Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Like a Prayer by Madonna- James of vorzakk

19. She had something to confess to but you don't have the time, so look the other way

20. Love and hate/get it wrong/she cut me right back down to size Come Down by Bush- James of bethiejames

21. I got a woman with plenty of money/she got the money and I got the honey Rich Woman by Robert Plant and Allison Krauss- Crawford of scaredstoned

22. Reluctantly crouched at the starting line The Distance by Cake- James of bethiejames

23. Ooooooo... Ain't found a way to kill me yet/eyes burn with stinging sweat Rooster by Alice In Chains- James of bethiejames

24. Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand

25. Ooooooo... Oh what delight to be given the right to be carefree and gay once again

26. Life is like a hurricane Duck Tales Theme- Claire of claireellen

27. Got money, I'll do anything for you. Head Like a Hole by Nine Inch Nails- Aron of nigel_hawthorne

28. Doesn't mean much, doesn't mean anything at all. The life I've left behind me is a cold room. Sweet Surrender by Sarah McLaughlin- joint effort between Chess of checkmate107 and Laura of lauraskank

29. Asalam and good evening to you, dear friends. Arabian Nights from Aladdin- Claire of claireellen

30. Busted flat in Baton Rouge, waitin' for a train Me and Bobby McGee by Janis Joplin- Crawford of scaredstoned

Context paragraph in case I haven't detailed these things already: I'm doing the costume design at Furman Univeristy for the fall show of the Glass Menagerie because the staff designer will be on foreign study all term. I'm also doing an "internship" at the Upstate Museum of History, which should help my application to grad school for museum studies. I'm living with a college classmate, Amy, in the house she just bought. After Thanksgiving I will move back to NC and continue living with my parents and working at the factory. </sum>

I've safely moved into my new arrangement in Greenville. They installed my internet capability on Saturday. So far I've spent time every day here at the theater, which is great. It's still really creepy to be there alone, but maybe a touch less so than I remembered. But then, I haven't been there alone at night yet. I really hate doing that. Anyway, most of the majors are on foreign study, which also happened when I went on foreign study, so it's interesting to see how quiet it is without many majors thumping around like they own the place. However, there are only like 8 majors TOTAL right now, including those in England, so that's pretty rough. Hopefully this term will turn up some new students.

Being in the Playhouse as staff is super weird, but really cool. People who were around all the time when I went here only show up for a few hours a day, but people I didn't see all the time (i.e. Alan, Guru Gene) always seem to be around. Curious. My design is going pretty well- I went to an estate sale with Margaret before she left and picked up some stuff for stock, and I've been able to do much better (and just plain more) research since I've arrived. Doug is directing, and right now he's in final rehearsal for Copenhagen, so he's not really ready to talk too in-depth about anything, but I'm brewing ideas. I don't think this is the kind of show where I'll paint pictures of every single costume since we're pulling most of it from stock and I don't really expect to build anything, but I do want to do some renderings of a few major things so that I'll have them around afterwards. More on all of this as it progresses. (If it is interesting enough to post about.) (And if I remember to.)

The museum is going well, too. We're installing a new exhibit, which is perfect. So I've been there almost every day, too. But I will spend less time there once the exhibit is set up. I can't technically call it an internship because I'm not a currently enrolled student, but I'm doing 10 hours a week at least, so that should be worth about the same. I really like the people here.

All in all, it is REALLY NICE to be here.

Btw, *swoon*

So while we were watching the Olympics, I paid special attention to Michael Phelps's pre-race ritual, which includes his sessions intently focusing on his iPod. So my family had a very long discussion about what he could possibly be listening to. Classical tracks? Prog rock? Books on tape? Motivational speeches? And we determined that in fact Michael Phelps gets pumped up by listening to his power song before every race on a constant loop: Happy Birthday To You. Over and over. With a serious face. Finally, he pries the headphones out of his ears to shatter a world record, but he really just wants to get back out of the pool and back into the cone of Birthday. You think?

I'm glad to report that I watched some sporting today that featured some teams other than Team USA. I totally get that this is the US and that family members of competitors want to see their relatives on television and that there's the whole national pride thing. But all the same, I was ecstatic today to watch some sports where Americans WEREN'T EVEN IN THE FINAL. It did confirm my suspicion that there are other countries in the world, a notion that had been fostered by the various commercials run during the Olympic coverage so far, but not actually supported by televised coverage. (Or at least not during the times that I've watched, which, admittedly, has been primarily during prime time.)

I support the notion that Mr. Phelps is an incredible badass and an undeniably gifted and majestic swimmer. But I feel that Dara Torres needs a little more fanfare than she's gotten for her incredible performance. She may not have the number of gold medals that Phelps has, but she's been participating in the Olympics since 1984, which is astounding. Also, she has demonstrated absolutely the right attitude about these games. She's very competitive and wants to win, but when she doesn't, she's a champion for sportsmanship.

Also of note- Rebecca Romero of Britain winning the gold for women's pursuit cycling. Not that noteworthy by itself. But this is not her first Olympic medal- she took a silver in Athens for rowing, a completely different sport. I was pretty blown away by that.

Anyway. I'm glad that the track and field events have begun, because it's broken up the rotation that NBC had been running for the last week. Had I not known better, I would have thought that the Olympics were a prime-time miniseries triathlon of swimming, gymnastics, and beach volleyball. If I never see beach volleyball again, that will be ok. I know that the Americans are performing very well in it, but for God's sake, please break up the unending coverage with some highlights of other events or something.

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. Well let's see.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.

2) Italicize those you intend to read.

3) Underline the books you LOVE.

4) Put a line through the books you HATE.

5) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling ***Love is too strong a word. I like it as a friend.

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible **I have not read enough of this in a continuous go to mark it. But I have read a few good chunks.

7 Wuthering Heights

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare **See note on Bible.

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma - Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis Isn't this covered by #33?

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding

69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell****I wish to double-underline this, I love it so much.

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte's Web - EB White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle**See note on the Bible

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad*I never finished it, I hated it so much.

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo****See note on Cloud Atlas

Ok, this is awesome. They're good at the beginning and get a little eh in the middle, but once you get about 2/3 of the way through, there are some really great ones.

Is it wrong that I kind of want these?

And that I totally want these, just can't pick a color?

Stupid American Apparel. Stealing all of my time with their stupid expensive ridiculous hilarious clothes and models.

I was driving home the other day just as it was starting to rain soft spring rain, and as I was cruising through my neighborhood, I saw an elderly couple dancing together in their driveway in the rain. It was one of the nicest things I've seen in a long time.

I haven't posted in a really long time. Some things have happened, none of them have been staggeringly important. The wedding in Ohio was truly excellent. It was nice to see Leah so happy and to finally meet her family and friends. It was also superb to finally see some more Peace Corps Volunteers at home. It was also nice to develop a (fleeting) little crush on someone that was based on chemical attraction instead of desperation. It's been a really long time since I really liked someone. It was nice to remember what that's like. I think that Will's former roommate Carly summed it up well when she once asked Will "do you like her like her, or do you lonely like her?" I think I'd forgotten what it was like to like someone. It was very pleasant.

Um, what else. I signed up for the GRE. I'll be taking it on the 5th of July, if anyone would like to send some spare good thoughts my way. I bought a ticket to Vermont so I can go to Carole's baby shower, another RPCV get-together. I'm going to Greenville this weekend for a very short visit to pay some brides-to-be some attention, although nowhere near as much attention as I'd like to.

My job takes a lot out of me. A lot of my time and way too much of my energy and brainpower. I don't really hate it that bad, except that I don't believe in it. I liked being in the Peace Corps because even if I didn't feel like I was doing all that much good myself, I did feel that I was part of something that I believed in. I do not get any special kick out of making the world's beverage cartons. Indirectly. From the human resources office. By typing disciplinary warnings for employees to sneak off to sleep in their cars during their shifts. Anyway, the job's really not that bad, but I feel like it will slowly sap my ability to be interested or involved in other things the longer I'm there. So I should probably look for something else for when I get back after fall term in Greenville.

My brother moved back home. It's been cool having him around, and good to have someone to run with. I didn't think that I liked running with someone else, but he matches my pace well, and I can tell that talking to him while running is helping my cardiovascular system, and having him to push me just a little bit is making me a better runner. I need to sign up for another race.

That's it for now, I guess. Apologies to you livejournal folk whose entries I have not commented upon as much as usual. Work, personal life, blah blah blah. I'll try to step it up a touch.

I haven't posted in forever. Things have happened, but nothing life-altering. I went to Greensboro and saw Will and Bob, that was truly excellent. This week, Amanda C. came to town and we saw Duran Duran. They were pretty good, I have to admit, as was hanging out with Amanda. Robert (my brother) is in town, it's always nice to see him, and next weekend I go to my friend Leah's wedding, where I'll see a bunch of Peace Corps friends. That's my brief summary. I spend all week thinking of little things I should post about, but can't go to LiveJournal at work, so by the time I get home, they're gone. Sorry.

I just finished my first 5k race, the Cary Road Race. It was great! Everyone who ran got a medal, so that's kind of nice, I guess. My time was just over 31 minutes, and given that the first half of a mile was really weird running, since there were so many people running different speeds, and people with strollers and dogs, and people walking and whatnot, so it took a while to hit the speed that I like to run. So I'm figuring that I ran most of it at just under 10 minute miles. Which I am ok with at this stage in the game. I felt pretty good running, although I need to be more mindful of my breathing. I was taking it a bit easy so that I wouldn't be tempted to stop (my goal was to not ever stop running) so now I know that next time I can run a little faster. My parents came to watch and brought Lucy, so she got a lot of dog socialization time.

I may never have posted about Lucy, I can't remember. My parents just got a new Golden Retriever puppy, she's almost 9 weeks old now. She's just about doubled in size since we brought her home. She's spunky. I like her. But man, are her teeth sharp.

Anyway. Now I'm going to go out and reward myself with a new pair of running shoes, as the ones I've been wearing are pretty worn out. My brother, who worked in an athletic shoe store for a while, is going to go with me. So that's my weekend.

I wrote a whole entry and then jacked it up by pushing the wrong button. I am a moron.

I saw Juno with my brother last night. It did not disappoint. Anything I could possibly say about it would be old news by now, so I'll save my gushing about how much I loved various aspects of it. Call me up if you wish to discuss the themes, though, I'll be ready. And anyone who thinks that the movie glorifies teen pregnancy is an ass hat.

I wish that sweet, nerdy boys weren't also frequently really annoying. It's seriously complicating my life right now.

My first 5k is tomorrow. I know I'm good for the distance, but I've never done it in a race setting before. I'm entering recreationally, so my time doesn't matter, but I'm still nervous about being surrounded by other runners and understanding the course and the etiquette. I guess I'll figure it out. Everyone cross your fingers that it doesn't thunderstorm until afternoon and think of me if you're awake at 9 in the morning.

Perils of the battle to not curse: Singing along with songs will occasionally cause you to unintentionally slip up. Thanks, Beastie Boys. You too, Outkast.

I'm sitting here trying to file my taxes and crying. It's seriously stressing me out. I don't know why this can't be simpler. I specifically don't understand why the Peace Corps, if they were the ones that paid me, couldn't just put the amount that they paid me on my W-2. Instead, I have to hunt all over the internet and figure out their cryptic summaries to find some numbers, then I have no idea if they're gross or per month, and they're calculated for normal volunteers, not ones who were in the "special" position of PCVL like me. It's making me really want to just not do my taxes or say "fine, then, I didn't get paid." But I really hate breaking rules and I know that that would probably be doing just that. And I also know that this is getting dangerously close to whining, but I think that it's a valid complaint that my "wage and tax statement" does not accurately reflect my wages or taxes. Generally I quite like Peace Corps and would do it again, but I have to say that the administrative support, especially for returned volunteers, is quite poor. This is almost as bad as the health insurance fiasco that happened when I returned home after having paid for an extension on my health insurance that just never happened. As it turns out, Peace Corps is just like any other office. Nobody will call you back and they're only interested in covering their own butts.

I'm a little cranky right now. It's the lack of candy and diet Coke.

Two quick things.

1) At dinner, my mom uttered a sentence I did not want to hear during this 40-day period: "Girl Scout Cookies arrived today!"

2) Today I suddenly really wanted to re-enroll in the Peace Corps. It came really suddenly. I'm not sure if it's because I was hanging out with a Peace Corps friend over the weekend, or if it's because I've been back long enough that wanderlust is back again, or what, but a tiny nagging voice in my mind wants me to go again. We'll see. I promise not to do it within the next 2 years unless something drastic happens. But I miss it. I don't really miss Kenya, but I miss Peace Corps.