I walked a long way in the cold today. Vermont is cold but there isn't as much walking in the cold as there is here. My knees both almost gave out when I tried to jog across a street. My roommate assures me this is normal when it's effing cold. In other knee news I bumped my knee really hard on the back of a seat on the el. Apparently, knees bruise.

Oh...and I got locked out of my apartment for a few tense minutes. Luckily my roommates got home early and were inside. The sucky part was coming out of the cold and being so relieved, then climbing 46 stairs only to find out that the door KNOB was locked in addition to the deadbolt. No one has a key to the knob. I went around back, up another 3 floors, and verified that I have no key for that door. Back down and around to the front and back up 46 steps to wait for someone to come home or call me back, and upon receipt of call I found out they were inside. :) But really...I was pretty miserable when I thought I'd just have to wait.

N.P. Concrete Blonde - "When I was a Fool"

And now for sleeping.

Magic Box

My mom found my long-lost camera today in a random box we took out of storage to transfer into the U-Haul. Now I don't have to worry that it fell into evil hands. Sadly, the charger is in another box as are all other wires pertaining to the camera's usefulness so any pics I take on the drive will have to be taken with what little time remains on the battery. Oh my, a paltry 33 minutes. I will have to choose wisely.

The U-Haul is 1/2 full and I only have to put in what came into the house. I think it will all fit. I will Tetris it all in.

Reading: "Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk" by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain. Status: must hurry so I can give it back to my brother.
also reading: "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman. Status: lost in a box. I'm sure I'll appreciate the added weight of that hard cover monster when I'm going up to the 3rd floor to my new place. The fun should begin Tuesday!

I probably won't get to write for a couple days, so Happy Birthday to O.S.

Happy Halloween

Living on a dead end street means, in my case, that very few kids come to the door. Sadly, my masterpiece went largely unseen. I post a picture of it now. It's camera-phone quality, because my camera is in a box in the storage unit until I find it again. I think.
I used one of Otep's drawings as the pattern and the letters are the band's logo.

Monday I'm moving. I didn't even call U-Haul yet...better get on that.

Holly Knight wrote back and thanked me for my email. :D Let me list some of her credits (solo or co-written):
Device - "Hanging on a Heart Attack"
Heart - "Never" and a bunch of others from the "Heart" album and later
Divinyls - "Pleasure and Pain"
Animotion - "Obsession"
Scandal - "The Warrior"
Tina Turner - "The Best," "Better Be Good to Me," and "One of the Living"
Lita Ford - "Stiletto"
Cheap Trick - "Space"
Pat Benetar - "Love is a Battlefield" and "Invincible"
Aerosmith - "Rag Doll"
A couple for KISS's Psycho Circus and Hot in the Shade CDs
Ozzy Osbourne - "Slow Burn"
The "Angel" TV theme (I *know* I've lamented that I wished I liked the show as much as the theme. Now it makes sense. It's like when I for some reason really really liked the Fruitopia commercials then later found out they were Kate Bush. :D)
Those are the highlights as far as the songs I know best. The whole list is here: http://www.hollyknight.com/disco.html

Weird day. Lots of things stirring up. I think I'm overtired.

I just wrote a letter to Holly Knight to thank her for being such an important part of my musical youth. <3 Holly. Songwriting royalty right there, dear readers.

I hung out with my brother tonight and played his new stand-up bass. It's really pretty and he's getting really good. I borrowed "Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk," which should be a good read. I finished "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" in about five hours over the last couple days and had to find something else. I've read just about everything I can reach in my room (the closet is packed with books and if there's some unread stuff in there it's way in the back).

I scheduled my move for the day I'm supposed to get my period. Genius. *sigh* If we'd been able to go a week earlier we might have been able to see GWAR at the House of Blues. Oh well. If I have garbage bags to hide under they're packed and I have no idea where anyway.

Still...awake....

The Chariot

Moving very soon now. I hope everything fits in the trailer, and that the tires don't shear like they did on my last long U-Haul trip (damn you, U-Haul). But as of November 7th I'll be out of the NE. The plan is to reach my apartment in Chicago on the 8th with enough daylight to unpack and get the U-Haul back to wherever it goes. I hope the cats are enjoying the freedom they have now, even if they don't have a window. Poor little guys are stuck in the basement so they don't ruin my parents' furniture. And then a cage for 2 days. Damn, they're going to hate me.

So this is written from my ad hoc computer set up and is transmitted via the wireless network I wrestled into submission. Listening to iTunes sort of song-at-a-time rather than letting it shuffle up my 4 and 5 star faves.... I was largely w/o music from the 10th to the 23rd and I missed some songs more than others.

I'm kicking ass in fantasy football. "McNabb isn't a good fantasy quarterback." \/\/hatever.

My brother and my new roommate told me that cat and dog food is grade C meat and Taco Bell is grade D meat. Is this true? wtf?

Is 1 am too late to make a pizza? *sigh*

The Wait is Over

Just now finished listening to the world premier of Kate Bush's new single "King of the Mountain." Kate...thank you so much. For everything, since the first time I heard you 20 years ago.

I couldn't be happier with the way the single sounds. I'm so relieved that I like it, too. After 12 years without anything new, who knows what direction she could have gone in. I can hardly wait for the new CD, and it's a double disc at that!

<3

Round and Delicious

Golden Oreos,
How I love thee.
Please feel free
To rot in Hell
Riiiiiiight next to
My will power.

Awwww...look who made a journal and neglected it....

When I write in a journal I usually write in the one I made on livejournal. However, I had this one long ago as well. I just don't feel like attending to two journals (or really...even one).

I will, however, update this with a really lovely sentence from a recent missive from my former employer:

"You have accumulated vacation time as reflected on your payroll stub will be included in your last check and mailed and mailed to you on 9/15/05."

How wrong is that? This guy judges anyone's performance? Come on.

P.S. I think VT law states that they have to pay me all owed money w/in 72 hours of termination. That will be 5 o'clock today. Hm....

NP - Mountain - "Nantucket Sleighride"