Things Remembered (not the store)

Ok, so here are some things I remembered recently:

When I was waiting to pee on a stick, we had dinner at a friend's house. They make the best fajitas, and Marci's guacamole is... amazing! (That's not what I remembered. I never forget good guacamole.)  Anyway, while we were there, the grown-ups went to play Munchkin, which is kind of like a card-game version of Dungeons & Dragons that totally makes fun of itself. John & Marci have 2 lovely daughters. Cassie, the oldest, wanted to play Munchkin with the grown-ups, which was totally fine by me, because I didn't really want to play Munchkin, so I gave her my spot and went to play dress up and dolls and watch Tinkerbell movies with Tori, the youngest. I love these kids, by the way. I just do. My favorite part of the evening was when they took me on a tour of the upstairs and showed me their rooms and all the cool stuff they got on their recent trip to Disneyworld. ANYWAY, while we're up in Tori's room and she's showing me the goods, she showed me this... thing. Ok, it had the Green M&M lady on it, wearing a turban, because she was a fortune teller, and there was a bubble thing that you pressed, like in Trouble! (the board game, remember?) and it would tell your fortune, Magic 8 Ball style. Then an M&M would come out of a shoot on the bottom--only this one was dispensing marbles instead because they'd already eaten all their allotted M&Ms. So, I asked the Magic 8 Ball/M&M Fortune telling marble dispenser if I was pregnant, since, you know, at the time, the question was pretty top on my mind. It said yes, and I thought, "well, gee, I hope your right."  AND IT WAS! Only I forgot, and I've remembered twice since then, but... but now I'm telling you, because I forgot again.

I really love U2. This isn't a surprise to those who know me, and they've been my favorite band since I was 16, so you know... there's that. Last night I was watching the most recent tour DVD and just sort of remembered all over again how much I love the music and the show and the way they don't take themselves seriously, but are serious about what they do and using their voice for things they believe in, and how some songs just totally come alive when played live in a way I didn't ever imagine from listening to the cd, and how in this HUGE arena, it can still feel like an intimate moment when you realize that up there on the stage, Bono is worshiping God in the midst of a rock concert, and so are you... yeah... I really love that band. This song (Magnificent) is from No Line On The Horizon and it's my favorite U2 song ever to be released as a single. I've been listening to it a lot lately (as anyone who follows me on Twitter knows) and it still makes me happy and makes me smile and makes me worship every time. I love, love, love it. Also, I touched Bono. Not recently. It was back in 2001, when he came to speak at a little church in Lincoln before giving his big address at the Leid Center for World Aids Day, and at the end, I got a chance to give him a card to say thanks for the music, and I touched his elbow. Yes I did.

I decided last night, that in a lot of ways, U2 & Alkaline Trio are kind of like the angel & devil on my shoulders sometimes. Not that either gives me ideas or talks me into anything, or that one is evil and the other good, but that I turn to music for comfort a lot and musically and personality wise, those two groups are very different, but both long time favorites, and there are Alkaline Trio moods and there are U2 moods. That's what I meant. I'm not explaining it well, but there it is. Imagine a little Matt Skiba on one shoulder, Edge on the other.

I don't do a very good job decorating for holidays or seasons. I have many friends who have a passion and a gift for turning their homes into wonderfully seasonally appropriate welcome places for friends to gather. I don't have that gift. I have some random pumpkin stuff, because I like fall, and I have some space in which to put it, but nothing elaborate or fancy. This year, I bought some lighted twiggy things for the front of the house so that we look vaguely festive. Our neighbors to the left (when you're facing the house, in case you needed clarification) always do a really great job decorating for the fall/winter holidays and it makes me happy to see their house, then sad that all I've got is one purple plastic pumpkin on the front porch.

Also, I don't have people over very often. I forget most of the time that you don't need a special occasion to invite folks to dinner or a movie or something. I'm bad at calling out of town friends just to check up. Thankfully, my friends are mostly the same way, so completely understand & still love me, and when we do talk, we just sort of recap the intervening time and move on from there. It's comfortable, and I like that. But what I remembered is how much I like talking with them when I do get a "hey, it's been a while" call or e-mail. I like hearing how they are, and telling stories and all that. So, this isn't a promise to be better, because these days I'm lucky if I remember to do all the steps involved in just getting myself put together to face the day, but I'm hopefully reminding myself that I do like talking one-on-one with friends, so maybe I will remember to do it more often, but no promises.

I remembered that I bought some pre-fab pastas the other day--tortellini & ravioli & those ones that look like tiny crab rangoon? So I boiled some up for dinner last night, and then I sliced up a summer squash & a zucchini & I sauteed them a little, and then in ANOTHER pot (3 pot dinners are rare for me), I dumped one of those cans of diced tomatoes that comes with the basil & garlic & onion stuff in them already, and when that had cooked down a bit, I poured it over the squacchini stuff, then spooned it on top of the brie & garlic pasta bits and it was like ratatouille on pasta... sort of.  It was really good!

Too Hip to be Square

This is not actually a post about Huey Lewis and the News.  Please try to contain your disappointment.

There are several technological type things that are about on the Internet that I haven't incorporated into my universe yet.  I suppose I just can't be bothered to learn a new thing, or I don't fully understand the purpose, utility or benefits of them thoroughly. 

First: RSS feeds and readers.  My husband subscribes to about 472* of them and when I catch a glimpse of his inbox and see 1023 unread messages** parts of me start to twitch.  Now, while I understand that I wouldn't be required to subscribe to that many feeds (and I don't even feel cool enough to use that term), but the thought is still slightly overwhelming.  I don't know that I want Lolcats and CakeWrecks and whatnot filling my inbox.  My inbox is the place where my friends send me notes and my online accounts tell me important stuff.  I don't want to clutter it with other stuff.  I could create separate folders like my husband does, but again I say that smacks of effort.

Secondly, the # tags on Twitter.  I've barely figured out how to shorten links so they don't take up my entire tweet.  While I understand the purpose of the # tag things I don't ever think to use them.  Maybe my tweets don't fit into categories, which isn't to say that they're so original and groundbreaking that they can't be defined or that they defy labels because they're so free and unfettered.  No, I think they're just so very average that I don't know what to tag them as.  Is there a "random stuff no one really needs to know" tag?  Or maybe a "vanity and other useless info" tag?  And if so, do I really want to waste any of my 140 characters on it?  I think not.

Finally, what in the world is Tumblr for?  I will admit to having done absolutely no research into this at all.  I know that some of the web comics I read have them, but that's about the extent of it.  Along the same lines, I have no idea what Digg, Reddit, or Stumbleupon are for aside from some hastily drawn conclusions based on their names. 

Am I missing out on all the greatness that the World Wide Web has to offer?  Am I being passed by as the Internet swirls on about me?  Do you know what these things are, or do, and can you help convince me that I need to add them to my life?  Tell me, oh Internet!  What are the wonders that lie inside these crazy things?  I still have a LiveJournal and I'm on Facebook and Twitter.  Oh yeah, and I have a blog.  I have the sites that I visit frequently on my bookmark toolbar.  I have "favorites."  Am I living in the rotary-phone age of the Internet?  Can I graduate to a cellular phone, or even a smart phone?  I'm not so sure.  I resisted PDAs with every breath as long as I could, and even resisted getting a phone that did more than, you know, call people.  It was only when a friend of my husbands had one he wasn't using that I even got a phone with e-mail and Internet... now I don't want to go back.  If I learn how to use those sites will I forget how to just poke around the Internet aimlessly like I used to?  Do I want that?  Does it matter?


*Perhaps a slight exaggeration
**Actually not an exaggeration at all

When did I become one of "those people"?

Alright, it shouldn't come as a shock to anyone that I'm not exactly cool. I wasn't one of the cool kids growing up. I worked at the college radio station because I had to for my degree, and while it was fun, I really just wanted to get back to my Avid and make movies. So, new music has always been forced upon me by kind friends and unwitting strangers, and I usually have to be dragged to concerts.

Or at least, that's how it used to be. I'm still pretty bad at finding new music by myself, because I like listening to the music I already have... all 362 hours of it, or something like that. I'm not really great at knowing who is playing where or when, but if I find out someone I like is playing near, I go. I don't even have to have a date. It's one of the things I've learned to do as I got older--go places and do things I like without having to be accompanied. I still like it better with friends, but I don't let that stop me.

But this isn't a post about my new-found independence. This is a post about getting old... sort of.

See, when I first started going to concerts, I was 16, and that was U2 at a stadium in Chicago, and doesn't really count in terms of "shows". It was a concert, and it was amazing, but "shows" are a different breed. I don't know what my first "show" was, but I'm going to guess something at the Sokol Underground with Andrew. And we saw lots of shows there.

(A side note: one of my favorite things Andrew has ever said about me is that I'm the most low maintenance high-maintenance girl he knows. I don't remember all the exact reasons why, but listed among them were the desire to go to shows and sit on a dirty concrete floor in jeans and sneakers and drink whiskey, but love lipstick and care about wearing matching accessories and still need reassurance that I'm a worthwhile human and stuff like that.)

So, this spring, Alkaline Trio came to Dallas, and I wanted to go. I didn't know anyone else* in 500 mile radius who liked them enough to go with me, especially since the concert fell on the same night as another social event that 93% of my friends were attending. I, forgetting that I was no longer 21, decided that I could do everything! I would put in a full day of work outdoors, attend Social Function A, then drive 45 minutes to the concert, stay up until it was tomorrow, sleep a pitifully small number of hours, then get up and do another full day of work outdoors again.

But again, this isn't really a post about the foolish choices I make to enjoy good music.

See, while I was at the show, I realized something.