K, Big 'D', & the 2 Adams

I went out of town (again, I know!) this past weekend to meet K (Kala) in Dallas for a Counting Crows concert. I left on Friday afternoon and picked her up at the airport in Dallas around 5pm. We stayed with my Aunt Charlotte, which is always nice. It seems like I rarely get to see Charlotte, Melanie, Scott, Mark, and that whole crew, so visits are always lovely.

When we got in on Friday, we had been sitting in 5 o'clock traffic coming back from the airport for a while and didn't really feel like don't anything crazy. So, we all just went out to eat some Mexican food and went back to the casa to watch some television. (There should be accents, yes, I get it.) Pretty uneventful. Still nice to see everyone and chat at dinner.

Saturday was a MUCH busier day, with Kala and I going shopping, finding some GREAT deals, catching an afternoon movie, eating, then heading back to Char's to get ready for the concert that evening.

The concert started at 7:30, and was kicked off by Augustana. I have their first CD, but honestly hadn't listened to anything other than Boston ("she said, I think I'll go to Boston, I think I'll start a new life ...") at great length, so I wasn't too frenzied to watch them. We did catch their last couple of songs, and they are honestly pretty good. I have since checked out their MySpace and discovered that they have a new album out. Upon listening to a few of those songs, I now wish I would have caught the entire set. Sweet and Low (to be found on their M.S. page) is FANTASTIC!

(Quick Confession: For a while before I moved, I would sing Boston, only replace it with Austin. It was somewhat of my own, personal theme song for a few months. I'm totally lame.)

So, we missed most of the opener, but did get to see all of Maroon 5 and, of course, all of Counting Crows. I also have both of Maroon 5's CD's, and have listened to the first, Songs About Jane, about a thousand times. I hadn't given much notice to their second (I forget the title), but as they played, I realized that I was super-uh-lot enjoying their show.

Now, I'll first admit that this could be attributed to 2 things outside of their actual musical abilities and talents. The first is that I had guzzled a HUGE beer in the break between them and Augustana (remember the aforementioned LOW tolerance). The second is that the singer, Adam Levine, is crazy-boiling-holy-cow-you-have-to-be-kidding-me HOT! I have heard of how big of a playboy he is, which honestly grosses me out quite a bit. I have also sworn off musicians (for personal reasons of my own ... ha!) of all kinds, entirely. Furthermore, whatever the phenomenon of "celebrity envy" happens to be has been completely lost on me since I was about 20.

However, for whatever reason, I found myself dancing, singing, laughing, and (yes) staring. I'm a bit ashamed to admit it, but the boy is oozing charisma. I mean, I ogled him for almost an hour and a half, so I'll at least give him that much. Also, he actually sounds better live than on his album. This has always been a big test for me. If you can match, or even trump, your CD vocally while playing a live concert, you're typically pretty golden in my book. This guy could. So, yeah, it was good. The highlight was Secret for me. If you've ever listened to the lyrics, you'll know just what I'm talking about. (Naughty!)

After Maroon 5 was another HUGE beer, then Counting Crows took the stage. Before I start talking about their performance, I have a confession to make that troubles me quite tremendously. The confession is this: I do not like their new album, Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings, very much at all. I can stomach 3, maybe 4, songs on the entire album ... but that's it. I'm a very large fan of the Crows, so it was rough on me to listen, listen, and listen some more to their newest addition ... and find nothing in it that reached me at all. So ... I honestly wasn't too sure how I was going to respond to their show this go 'round.

I am pleased to say that, as an old fan, I enjoyed their set a lot. I do think, though, that you would have HAD to been an OLD fan to appreciate it at all. Here's why ... they did EVERYTHING acoustically. Everything. Anna Begins, Miami, Rain King, Mercury, and so on. It was far from "upbeat," but it was really pretty music. It did fit the evening. (We got lucky, and were granted a reprieve from the heat. Beautiful weather!)

Kala didn't like it too much because it was quite a big adrenaline cut-off from Maroon 5's totally loud and fast and all-over-the-place set. I do have to say that I think it might have been better for Counting Crows to play first if they were going to play so mellow. It's easier to go from mellow to wild, than from wild to mellow.

Even still, I liked it. They played very, very, very few of their newer songs (surely they have to know they fall short!), so that was actually good for me. I got my Anna Begins fix, which is always nice, and I had never heard Miami done acoustically. It's very pretty that way. I also heard some songs I'd never heard live, like Mercury. All in all, it was an exceptionally different set than I've ever seen from them. Very VH1 (old-school) Storytellers.

(Quick Sidenote: Adam (of CC) has lost tons of weight and looks very good, happy even. So, mock if you must, but no "fat boy" jokes. They just don't pertain anymore. Besides, shitty new album or not, he'll always be one of the most talented musicians (writers) I've ever heard.)

In the end, the concert and shopping with Kala on Saturday, as well as seeing Melanie's ever-growing belly (she's 7 months pregnant!) on Friday were the high points of the weekend. Sunday was pretty much waking up, watching a little TV, packing up, taking Kala to the airport, and driving home. A very nice weekend overall!

I will say that I believe I-35 to be Hell's Highway, but (thankfully!) this trip back and forth wasn't too, too bad. Somehow I managed to avert the horrible traffic that tends to clog up the way too small 2-lanes each way. I made super-good time back, and hung out with Alex for what was left of the evening on Sunday. It's usually nice to come home from a bit of time away and have the person you are coming home to really happy to see you. Sometimes it's just good to be missed.

Although I've GREATLY, GREATLY enjoyed my past 2 weekends out of town, I will say that I am happy to be staying in Austin this weekend. No long-distance driving, no dodging crazy idiot people who think they are in Nascar, no multiple stops at gas stations, and no setting alarms. The only potential oddity of this particular weekend is the ever-brewing Ike. He's proving to be a tricky little dude, so we'll see how much he affects us here in A-town. I hope not too much ...

And ... scene!

'Josie's on a vacation far away'

Not really. I mean, I was, but it wasn't far away. And my name isn't Josie. I do have the same number of syllables in my name as good ol' Jos, though, so I guess it could work. Kinda.

So, yes, Lubbock was a very nice little getaway. I dropped Alex off at the airport in Austin around 7pm on Thursday and hit the road. I didn't get in until about 1 in the morning, but it was worth it. I had a full day planned out for Friday and getting up at 4am just wouldn't have sufficed.

I was able to meet Kala for lunch on Friday, which gave us the perfect opportunity to catch each other up on life, gossip (at least I admit it!), jobs, boys, Austin, Lubbock, jury duty, yucky hospitals, and all of that crazy stuff we call Life. That was very nice for me, considering we very rarely get to see each other these days. The other times I've been back to Lubbock have been strictly family lockdown situations. My mom and Aunt Kay have a way of filling my hours there is very strategic. (Not complaining! I enjoy it immensely.)

But, yeah, Kala and I were able to talk, talk, talk ... just her and I ... which was, as I said, wonderful. She's doing pretty freakin' great, has stopped smoking, and is more motivated to embrace a completely healthy lifestyle than I have ever seen anybody. I'm so proud of her (not to sound trite at all). Never having been a smoker, I can't really relate to the difficulty of quitting. I hear it's rough, though. That girl just went cold turkey, and hasn't touched the stuff since! Yowzers.

I also got to see my little sister almost every day that I was there. I still can't believe that she is 22!!! My baby sister ... 22 years old. It's freaky. But it's true. She's this almost completely grown-up person. She still wacky as ever, but that's how we all love her best. She's a good kid. Always has been. She's trying to get back into school sometime soon, and I think there is nothing better she could do right now. With the economy potentially flushing down the toilet, school is a very safe bet for a few years. Wait out the worst, jump back on the wagon when it starts rolling again. (And it will start rolling again.)

Anyhow, we went out for drinks the two nights before Alex came into town (Thursday and Friday), which was also great because I ran into a lot of my old crew. (Bunch of Trouble running around! Still adore 'em to pieces, though.) I also noticed while I was out with my (younger, remember) sister that I simply cannot hang like I used to be able to. (And don't really want to be able to do now.) I was never a heavy drinker by any grand stretch of the imagination. I went out on the weekends some, but never to excess. Now I barely do anything alcohol-related. My tolerance ... pathetic. It's alright, though. Cheap date!

Oh, and Friday night I went to see Mama Mia with my mom and Aunt Kay. I love musicals (can't help it, have no desire to try), and we all enjoyed that one quite a bit. After the movie, we grabbed quick bite to eat, and I met up with Heidi and Courtni for a bit. We started at Fox, but some of their crowd wanted to hit Chances R. Anyone who knows me knows that I am about as far from a Chances R girl as a person can be ... so ... I opted out of that portion of the evening. Still, even though it was brief, it was nice to see my ladies. I miss them (all!) so, so much.

On Saturday, I woke up super-massive-whoa-early to have breakfast with my mom and Aunt Kay before my mom had to go get her shop ready to open. After breakfast, I fell asleep for much longer than I had intended and woke up just in time to shower, get ready, and grab Alex from the airport.

Once he was there, it was all family, all the way. We took my mom a late lunch at her shop, then headed to Aunt Kay's for dinner, cards, and drinks. The same could be said of Sunday, save a trip to the lovely South Plains Mall for some shopping. (Strange that we shop more in Lubbock than in Austin? Not really. Everything's close in the LBK. Not so in the ATX.) I think that was the night we "officially" celebrated my mom's birthday. Monday was supposed to be the day we left to head back to Lubbock. Supposed to be ...

We had just eaten lunch on Monday and were preparing to hit the road, car packed, everyone about to say their goodbyes ... when Alex looked over at me and said, "We're staying another day. I'm going to take my free day at work." Then he looked over at my mom and said, "Happy birthday, Patty. I give you your daughter on your actual birthday." (She loved it.) Her "real" birthday was on Tuesday, the 2nd, which we were going to miss entirely. Game time decision, we stay! Ha.

The real reason for staying was neither one of us wanted to drive and we were all having such a good time, we weren't really ready to leave. Since Alex works for the government down here, LBJ Day was a "come to work, win a free day later" workday for his office. He worked; therefore, get-paid-for-no-work-day for him! Hey-oh! It was beautiful. Due to the impromptu extra day, we just hung out all day Monday and Monday evening. Then, on Tuesday, we kidnapped my mom and took her to lunch for her birthday, then left around 2 in the afternoon.

It worked out so much better that way because traffic was light, and we got to sneak over to Colee's (my sister) house on Monday evening for one more visit before we left. Plus, obviously, my mom was crazy-happy we were able to see her on her actual, day-of birthday. It made her week. And mine! :)

That was my trip in a nutshell. A lot of other crazy stuff happened, especially the Friday that I met up with Colee. Late night was INSANE! We felt like we were straight out of a Twilight Zone episode. Details would take far too long and this thing has already been semi-novel-ish. Let me just say that it was like The Series of Super Unlikely Events from the minute I walked in to PM to meet her, right up until I drove back to Aunt Kay's at around 4 in the morning.

Quickly ... highlights of the weekend were definitely seeing Kala's pants almost fall off her thin hiney, my mom and I and our verbal antics that no one else thinks are funny, Alex and Norbert getting drunk as skunks on the patio and hugging it out, Aunt Kay's homemade rolls, seeing old friends and getting the "Woop, woop!" pick up and twirl, MY SISTER!, the relief of knowing that all our move-in/move-out work back here was done, the mashed potato in the kitchen, re-discovering that "one, special thing," and a lot, a lot of laughter.

Fin.

All good things ...

Below is little snippet of what I've been listening to lately. I guess the whole thing doesn't fit, so scrolling is a bit difficult. I have it on "Random," so navigating the little sucker may be rough. Still, it's music! Yay! We like music 'round these parts.

Oh, and the first song is the song I got my little title and excerpt from above. I'm going to try to add it to my profile on here as well. (It says you can, but who knows?) Anyhow, here's a little music to spice up this joint! :)

'Click your heels three times and say ..."

Dryers vent into the hallway of our apartment and it has the cleanest, freshest smell when any laundry is being done. It ranks right up there with rain and skin.

Today has been packing (again) and cleaning (again) and getting ready to go out of town. I loathe packing and love traveling. It seems there's always some Catch-22. Still, I'll take the packing if I can take the vacations. As it happens, I have been lucky enough since moving to have little reprieves at least once a month. The first 6 months I lived here was like one, big, extended vacation. We were talking about that last night. In truth, it's been a little difficult coming down from that high. It can be addictive.

Most of the time, I stay balanced right smack in between discouraged and elated. It's a tricky management sometimes, but I do try. My "career" and "professional" life is totally in the toilet, and I've just accepted that it probably will be until I graduate with my Master's, yet my "personal" and "home" life is not much short of completely amazing. Of course, I wouldn't mind having my friends and family physically around, but I seriously have to thank the beauty that is collectively the telephone, the car, and the plane ride.

So, most of the time I'm great, I'm golden, I'm keeping my chin up despite the frustrations. From time to time, however, the lower end drags me down a bit and the blues set in. Yesterday was one of those days. I couldn't seem to shake it. Finally, by evening's end, I was back to "normal" again. (But, really, what is normal? No one knows.) The point is that the impending visit home is making me one happy little lady. (Where are those dang ruby red slippers when you need 'em?!)

I've been burning CD's for the drive to and fro all day. If there is one thing that cheers me, it's definitely The Mixed CD/Tape! (I like the way "Mixed Tape" sounds way better than "Mixed CD," but since the tape is now obsolete, I feel strange keeping it in my repertoire.) I get tired of listening to the same, tired thing over and over and over, and I have to 100% agree that music shapes mood. Certainly, you can select music to fit mood, but what you listen to on a regular basis probably molds you a bit more. Something to do with chakra, I'm sure. ;)

But, really, that's a question I ponder quite a bit. I think that's why I had to shy away from the newer stuff for a bit and resort to the oldies. They tend to be a little more upbeat. "The stories, oh the stories, they were so much better then ..." (From a poem I wrote a while back called 1933.) Anyway, it's "the chicken or the egg?" debate, and, more specifically, "Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?" assertion. (Nick Hornby, High Fidelity.)

I think about the weirdest things! If you could go fishing inside my brain to hook a few thoughts out at random, you probably wouldn't believe what you discovered. Aren't we all like that, though? We're all freakin' crazy as bedbugs. The older I get, the more I believe it must be true.

Further affirming this belief was the marathon of Trading Spouses on CMT (of all stations) yesterday. While I was folding laundry and organizing photo albums, I flipped on the TV and there it was. The channel was the remnant of the previous night when we were watching Any Given Sunday before bed. I never watch CMT, not being the biggest country music fan in the world, so I had never seen the show. Talk about wonky! Those people were flat-out bizarre.

Given the name of the show, I'm sure you can assume that 2 couples switch a spouse/parent. In this case, it was the wives/mothers being swapped, most of the time completely across socio-economic, racial, cultural, religious, and geographic lines. The fireworks were quite huge, and the train wreck aspect of the show proved to be too much to pull away from. In the end, each family discovered how totally elated they were to be reconnected at the end of the week-long stint away from each other. The lesson, I'm sure, is supposed to be: "Be happy with what you have." I, myself, don't think I would need to wive/parent another family to realize it, but oh well.

It's time for me to load the car. I need to leave soon-ish. This is good news! I'll be back on Monday, usually with some good stories to tell. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend! I know I will!

In the words of Robert Louis Stevenson, "Take care of each other."

The gun & the cannoli ...

Well, it's official, I'm living in sin.

It hasn't quite sunken in yet, but I know I'm happy! That's all that matters. It is a bit strange because we were both very used to staying every night at his place. We rarely stayed here (cats and allergies and whatnot), so it's kind of a new living space for the both of us. it's a nice mish-mash, whatever way you slice it. :)

After the weekend's events, we both feel like we've been wrung through a knothole backwards; however, the majority of the moving is done. There's still a bit of last-minute stuff to store, but that's about it. Words cannot express how much I loathe moving. The good news is that Alex didn't have all that much to move. He dropped over half his stuff in the move to Austin from New Mexico last year, so ... yeah. Almost done!

It's good timing, too, because we're leaving town on Thursday. Alex is headed to Albuquerque for an eye doctor appointment and I am headed to Lubbock for the entire weekend as soon as I taxi him to the airport that day. It's a holiday weekend, and my mom's birthday all wrapped up into one nice, little packaged deal. So, I'll be doing "girly" things with my fam and friends for the first few days. Then, Alex will fly to The Hub on Saturday afternoon and co-ed family events will commence.

Speaking of my friends and family, it's CRAZY how much I miss them! It's even more so how it has actually gotten worse, instead of better, as the time has gone on. I've been here for going on the back-end of a year so far, yet all the time has done is make me realize more and more how much those folks at home mean to me. It's not easy being apart, that's for sure. The visits are SO MUCH FUN, though! We've got it all mapped out. I'm excited!

It just proves to me more and more that it's not necessarily where you are, it's who you surround yourself with. Here, it's super-saturated with things to do, but it's not fun if you don't have your posse ("peeps," if you will) to come along. Alex and I have a great time together, though, so that does help matters tremendously! Still, I miss my folks (and I don't just mean my parents).

Everything is always so up in the air that I don't know if we're coming or going half the time, but I do know that things have not gone exactly how I planned coming here. The whole "hiring freeze" BS that I've mentioned time and time again threw a HUGE wrench into "the plan." So, we've adjusted a bit. It all depends on what we decide together, but we both need to start figuring out where we want to go to Grad and Law School (for me, for Alex, respectively). Here is now out of the question, for too many reasons to type at this moment. I need to go somewhere where I can teach while getting my Master's, and Alex needs a law school that isn't so snooty and more hooked on their diversity than accepting people who have all the creds.

So, we are in the process of discussing where we would like to go ... together, of course. "You jump, I jump." Now is the time of decisions, that's for sure! And not always easy ones ... in fact, very rarely easy ones. It's okay, though. It's "character building," as my fabulous Aunt Kay would say. Whatever happens and as always, we shall see. There's no hurry right now. Write goals in permanent marker and plans in pencil. One step at a time. All the cliches! You get the idea.

OH! And, quickly, my sister helped solve my music stagnation issue last week, so I'm starting to kick off the ickies. (Musically, that is.) Some stuff not on her list that I have been listening to a lot are You Are the Best Thing by Ray LaMontagne (on his new album coming out in October sometime), I'd Rather Be With You by Joshua Radin (also on his new CD), and To the Beat of Our Noisy Hearts by Matt Nathanson. (Hey, I had to have something to get me through the heavy lifting!)

To end, I'll go with this one today: "There is no set path. Just follow your heart."

Bubble wrap galore!

I finally did it! I organized every, single, flippin', flappin' nook and cranny in my bedroom! That includes closet, bathroom, dresser, vanity, and under the bed. Whew, I'm exhausted! But it feels oh, so goooooood!

That's been my week in a nutshell: organize, clean, grapple over whether or not to throw "that" away, put it in the Maybe pile, take out of the Maybe pile, throw in the Keep pile, stare for a few minutes, try it on again, put some shoes in the Never-Again-No-More pile on with the Maybe/Keep item, get frustrated and throw them in the Never-Again-No-More pile. On and on the cycle goes ... er ... WENT ... until today! Today, it is all finished. I sit here in the middle of my "new" bedroom, staring at the greatness that is no clutter, organization, and necessity-only. It's glorious!

Okay, so, I realize that I said "my" room in the previous paragraph. The truth is ... that isn't going to be the truth for much longer. A big-ish step is upon us, and Alex is moving in this week!!! We are both super-uber-exicted about it. Well, we will be super-uber-exited about it once we get everything moved. And then, in a couple more months, we will be even more super-uber-excited about it once we can get our own place. It's not that I don't love Melissa to death and think is she is a wonderful roommate (because I do and she is). It has more to do with the fact that Alex is crazy-allergic to cats and she has 2. Plus, we are a newly-living-together (soon enough) duo and will probably be ready to spread out of just my one bedroom sooner rather than later.

We would have gotten our own place now, when his lease is up, but mine isn't up until December. It's been a tricky planning process, which has been made much harder by my Nazi apartment people (sad, but true). The reasons behind my accusations are numerous and way too extensive and anger-inducing to mention right now. Just know that we have gone 'round and 'round with those about some stuff in our lease that we should be able to do and have been told we can't. So, long story short (kinda), he's just going to stay here with Mel and I until around the beginning of November. At that point, we'll find somewhere else. It works out well enough.

I'll never forget when we made the final decision. We had discussed it a little here and there, but finally had a "serious" discussion about it one Saturday morning a few months back. We were leaving my apartment when we kind of looked at each other all goofy and said the final, "Yes, this is absolutely what we want to do." Alex grabbed my hand and shook my arm with this huge grin on his face. "What?" ... "I'm just so happy to be making plans with you. I'm excited!" And I am, too!

Moving in, though ... I've never officially lived with a boy, so it'll be very different for me. The funny thing is I'm not AT ALL nervous, or weird, or freaked out, or doubtful. It's time and it's with the right one. Plus, he always puts the seat down for me, so I'm not too worried about little-big things like that. ;) It's just a really great step, we both think ... a very natural, no-question-about-it step for us. It's been so nice! We are always right there on the same page, sentence even! In most situations, it seems like one person is walking slowly and the other is at a full sprint. Not with us. I'm a lucky girl. We have "the stuff." The good, right stuff. (New Kids on the Block! Hey-oh! Um, no ...) I could go on and on and on, but I will spare everyone the sapfest. (You're welcome. Ha!)

So, yes, all of that to tell you all why I went on the insane spree of clean/organize/donate/store/wash/fold/arrange this week. The truth is that it has actually be quite fun making extra room. The big move-out/move-in is this weekend, so we still have A LOT to do. Which means, I should be going now. I've chatted enough while he is at his apartment packing. Going to grab some alcohol and head on over! Because, really, what's packing and moving without inebriation? Time poorly spent, my friends ... time very poorly spent. ;)

Splish-splash!

It finally rained some this weekend! I'm crossing my fingers and will do a rain dance in the middle of the street (if need be) for more this week. You know how some people get depressed when there is too much rain? Well, I'm the polar opposite: I get depressed when there is not enough. Loads and loads of sun bums me out ... rain makes me feel all giddy and frisky. Bring on those clouds!

(On the flipside, however, my mom has informed me that she woke up on Saturday morning to find it raining in her kitchen. Apparently, all of the weather up there made their ceiling cave in. That kind of rain, I'm not sure I would be too fond of.)