June 9
my hair is OUT OF CONTROL. if i do not cut it, it's going to suffocate me one of these nights. i wake up with it in my mouth and up my nose, gasping for breath. uh, that's ME gasping for breath, not my hair. the more i look at it, the more horrible i look here. i'm going to post this immediately, i have no time to take another photo where i don't look like a troll.
Gah! I am embarrassed at the length of the break I took! I can't even pretend that I had a good reason for being away for so long, like "I was on vacation!" or "I was in a coma" or something. I was just being a lazy turd, and quite honestly, I didn't feel like talking about my grandfather. I mean, nothing big has happened, just that last week, or maybe the week before that, I was leaving their house after dinner, and he walked me to the door--as he always does--and he said "I sure do wish I could go with you!" and I said "Where, Grampa?" and he said "Oh, wherever you're going!" and I just thought that was so sad and poignant and it made my heart break a little because I know that eventually, he WON'T go where I'm going, and that makes me sad, just like, talking about it right now is making me really sad, and kind of teary eyed, so I know that someday I will have to deal with the finality of things, but not right now.
Otherwise, things are going along pretty well. I am taking a Technical Writing course at a community college. I have plenty of things to say about it and the instructor, but I am going to bite my tounge and keep silent--mostly--until it's all over next month. So, the class is supposed to be from 6:00-9:00, and I registered for it before I realized that it was being taught at a community college about 10 minutes from my house. Of course, I signed up for the one in Dildo, Connecticut, which is approximately a million miles from my house.* Traveling to Dildo isn't so much the problem. I like to drive, and the majority of the trip is along a local route, so it's scenic and treeful, and sometimes there's a COW, and there's always the danger of a deer darting out in front of my car. My problem with the class is that it lasts about 15 minutes, the actual class part. Like, I show up and the instructor reviews whatever little bit we're doing off of her syllabus with a powerpoint slide presentation, and then sets us loose to "work on the homework". We could, technically, stay doing homework for the following two hours and 45 minutes on a PC in the classroom, but really, I can sit at home in my underpants eating sausages and do my homework. I don't have to sit in a smelly classroom at Dildo Community College.
Basically, it takes me 35-40 minutes to drive there, then about 30 to drive home (less traffic). And no shit, the class is FIFTEEN MINUTES. I am unable to figure out why this isn't an online class. It would save me a lot of time and frustration. On the plus side, I think that I'll probably get an A in the class, because, well...it's not a very difficult class. I should have bought the textbook and saved myself 400 dollars. Live and learn.
*It's not really a MILLION miles, because I bet driving a million miles would take longer than 40 minutes, even with traffic.
I bought ticket for the Field Day Festival last month, too. Does anyone know about it? Long story short, it was supposed to be a 2 day music festival out on Long Island. The first day's headliner was Radiohead, the 2nd was the Beastie Boys. I bought tickets for the first day only, wanting to see the B boys, but not wanting to camp. RADIOHEAD, people!!!! RADIOHEAD!!!
The whole thing got fucked because apparently, the promoter of the concert neglected to obtain the proper permits to put such a giant show on, and there were lawsuits and hurt feelings and it got CANCELLED, and they never bothered to update the site, so all of these people travelling from like MEXICO and CANADA or where ever had NO idea that it'd been nixed until the very last minute.
Anyhow, what wound up happening was that it got changed to a 1 day thing, and moved to Giant Stadium. People were bitching and moaning and weeping that they wouldn't be able to CAMP and all the other BANDS weren't going to be seen (there were about--in the two days--30 bands scheduled to play, some I wanted to see, too, like Sigur Ros and Interpol). The lineup wound up being Radiohead, The Beasties, Blur, Beck, Underworld, Spiritualized, Liz Phair and whoever else.
Nick and I were happy because we were getting to see BOTH the Beasties AND Radiohead on the same day. I got my money back for the original tickets, bought the new ones, everything was fine. We decided to go to Ikea before the show to kill some time, and as we were driving there, it started to rain. We were prepared, though. We both had raincoats. Go to Ikea, eat lunch, wander around, buy stuff and leave. Get outside, and the floodgates have opened. It is POURING. It is freezing cold and pissing down rain and just horrible. The Jersey Turnpike was at a standstill because of some kind of roadwork, so we inched along towards the show, excitement not dampened (heh, heh) by the rain.
Suddenly, up ahead see a car pulled over on the grassy portion of the road. (I guess that would be the shoulder, because the road itself is not grassy...) We see a door open and a chick get out. She kind of looks around at things, and I see her make a move for her pants. I say to Nick "She's not going to PEE there, is she?!" and no shit, as soon as the words were out of my mouth, she DROPPED TROU AND SQUATTED.
Folks, we're not talking about some deserted country road, here. We're talking the NEW JERSEY TURNPIKE DURING ROAD CONSTRUCTION! Traffic was NOT MOVING. I'm no prude, but I was outright SCANDALIZED that a woman would whip off her pants without at least ATTEMPTING to hang on until the rest station (incidentally, the next rest stop was about 5 miles away, and the traffic broke up about 30 seconds after we passed her, ass up for all the world to see).
So, you know how when you really, really really like a band, you want all of the people who like that band to be like you? You want them to be smart and funny and appreciative and not stupid and horrible and dorky? Well, the Radiohead show did not do that for me. When I went to see them at Suffolk Downs 2 years ago, it was dark when they went on, and I arrived when it was dark, so I never really had to get a load of all of the weeping emo girls and boys, writing in their own BLOOD and mixed with their own salty TEARS in their little black journals covered in trendy stickers about how deeply they feel Radiohead's music and how, clearly, they are a kindred spirit with Thom. RETCH.
Anyhow, to make the long story short, Nick and I sat in our UNCOVERED seats in the POURING rain, getting absolutely soaked, until we went off and bought 5 dollar rip off ponchos. THEN, we sat in the pouring rain getting only moderately damp. Beck cancelled (which was perfectly fine with me, beccause I hate his music, sorry Beck fans!) for a really made up sounding lame reason (someone BUMPED him and he thought he cracked a rib!) so the Beastie Boys came on early. Now, I have loved the Beastie Boys for as long as I can remember, I have SEEN them around, but I have never seen them in concert. They were awesome. The rain even stopped right as they went on. Wish they'd performed a longer set. Wish they'd done No Sleep Till Brooklyn (Nick wishes they'd done Sabotage). Really, though, I was there to see Radiohead.
I really hate sounding like one of those retarded fan people, but Radiohead were astonishingly good. I don't know how many of you reading are fans, and I don't know how many of you this will mean something to, but there's a part in the song Paranoid Android (and comeon folks, OK Computer is supposed to be the best album ever recorded. Crawl out from under your rock and go get it) when the tempo totally changes mid song. It goes from being hard rocking, yelling guitars, pounding drums to an absolutely angelic
Rain down, rain down
Come on rain down on me
From a great height
From a great height
Rain down, rain down
Come on rain down on me
From a great height
From a great height
Rain down, rain down
Come on rain down on meŻand I cried as he sang it. It was so lovely and his voice so poignant and I was so happy to be there to hear him sing it, I cried like a little emo bitch. I didn't care who saw me, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one.
I promise I won't take such a long break again. At least, maybe.