Addendum

Ok, I know I said I only have three requirements for potential dating material....I'm not changing that, so don't get your panties in a bunch. I'm merely adding a list of "would-be-nice-but-not-mandatory" qualities that would rock my world. Should I find a guy who fits the requirements and possesses ANY of the following, I'd be in heaven:

plays an instrument
writes well
willing to read me to sleep
has an unusual quirk
good imagination
blushes

I'm sure I'll add to the list as I think of stuff.... thankyouandgoodnight...

The good kind of hot

Panang. Red curry sauce, tempeh, bell peppers, carrots, peas and bamboo shoots. The kind of burn that starts out slow and sweet but ends up making you blush and feeling very naughty. The heat from the curry sets your lips on fire like kissing the person who makes your heart skip a beat. If there's any left for the next day, it's hotter and sweeter than the first round... well worth the wait.

I don't know what it is about spicy food but when my lips start burning from the curry, the only thing on my mind is making out.... so, if you're ever on a date with me and you suggest a Thai or Indian restaurant, I'm taking that as a hint. ;-)

Game show wannabe

I decided last night that I want to go on that new tv show Dog Eat Dog or Fear Factor. If you haven't seen them, you probably have a more exciting life than I do and spend your Monday nights out on the town all fired up, but whatever. Check them out if you get tired of your rockstar lifestyle...

In other news, people as a whole have officially been declared wicked cool so the next time you see someone deserving of a hug or a pat on the back or a quickie in the elevator, go ahead and let them know. Don't be shy, folks.... share the love. Buy the guy next to you at the bar a beer just to be neighborly. Tell the old lady across the street that her hair looks nice. Bake some muffins for your co-workers. When someone does something nice for you for no reason other than they felt like it, you feel special, right? Well, turn around and pass it on! ......and then figure out how to get me on those tv shows...

I'm baaaaack

Still trying to catch up on all the e-mail and messages I missed by being gone on Friday. Normally, I'm pretty good about telling people I'm not going to be anywhere near a computer or phone for however long I'm planning to be gone, but I was a slacker this time. I actually started jonesing for a computer fix yesterday and if it wasn't already so late when I dropped my sister off, I would have stayed and checked e-mail and posted some stuff here and answered messages....but I was tired and work comes calling pretty dang early.

Anyhoo, I went to Portland for the weekend with my family. Friday night was a small pre-party get-together at my aunt's house to talk about who was going to do what the following day and what time everything was happening. Saturday was my grandmother's 2nd 80th birthday party, again at my aunt's house. Yeah, I know, 2nd? The first one wasn't good enough? *shrug* Who knows...my extended family is weird. So, a bunch of people I rarely see showed up, ate some barbeque, drank a bunch of wine and played catch up with each other. My aunt is seriously anal about everything (her entire house is white and she doesn't much appreciate kids) so there were little tense moments throughout the day, but besides that, everything went well. Ok, wait, there was that incident where my grandmother asked me if my dad had seen me holding my one month old 2nd cousin and commented that dad would be so happy if I had a few of my own... riiiight. That wasn't even subtle! Sheesh...

Sunday was a family obligation-free day, so my cousin Tara, my sister and I went shopping. After Tara headed home, my sister said she was starving....literally wasting away to nothing right before my eyes....she might need me to carry her bags because she wasn't sure she had the strength to go on.... cute. So we headed up to the top floor of the new shopping center in the middle of downtown and ate at Todai - an-all-inclusive seafood/sushi/japanese buffet. $23.95 for as much lobster, crab, shrimp, fresh sushi and sashimi, tons of different salads, fruit and desserts as you wanted. After all that, Brandy fell into what might go down in history as the most severe food coma ever. EVER. The girl couldn't even hold her own head up in the car on the way home. I was just happy she didn't blow up.

Mixing it up

I want someone to make me a compilation cd of nothing but 80's stuff... I want Dramarama's "Anything, Anything" and XTC's "Dear God".... I want David Bowie's "Let's Dance" and Duran Duran's "The Chauffeur".... I want Men Without Hats's "Safety Dance" and The Cure's "Just Like Heaven".... and I want whoever puts this thing together to fill in the spaces.... ok, ready....set....go!

At least she's consistent

There is nothing worse for me than being woken up from a dead sleep in the middle of the night by my neighbor. This happens to me on a regular basis and I'm becoming a very disgruntled girl. VERY. I'm starting to imagine scenarios where fire shoots out of my eyes and torches the hippie chick and her late night party posse. Or with the power of my mind, I make her nappy little head and crappy cd collection blow up. Last night, I imagined mutant squirrels taking over her apartment, eating her pot stash, thinking in their stoned state that she and all of her friends had big walnuts for heads and cracking them open because they had the munchies. I'm betting these kinds of thoughts aren't all that healthy and are the direct result of a regularly disrupted sleep pattern and the recent heat wave. I hate this crap. Hate!

Quick and painless

I have set a new record for the shortest lived crush ever. A little disappointing, but easily gotten over. It's not that hard for a decent guy to catch my attention, but I usually know within the first meeting with someone new if they have potential or not. I've got a list that's three items long of requirements for potential dating material:

1. good sense of humor.
2. good hygiene.
3. non-smoker.

That's not that hard to find, right? Wrong. Point in case: trumpet player guy is funny in a nerdy sort of way. Check. He appeared to have bathed in the last 24 hours and his shirt even looked pressed. Check. Found out last night that he smokes. Ugh. How does that even work? I mean, playing an instrument that requires serious lung power and being a smoker? Anyway, I had previously thought he was super cute and super talented....now he's just super talented. Too bad.

Well, fancy meeting you here...again

Finally got the gumption to go to Jo Fed's by myself. I'm usually not such a weinie about doing stuff on my own, but sitting alone in a night club at a table for two always seemed a little sad. Such was not the case Friday night. First, the band was the same one I'd seen back in February and really liked, so that was cool. The aforementioned cutie trumpet player came and sat with me during one of their breaks and we chatted for a bit which was also cool. A guy from my softball team and a few of his friends showed up, asked me to come sit with them, complimented my art and taught me how to play backgammon. How could I not like that? So boys and girls, the moral of the story is: meeting people is easy if you put yourself in a completely foreign environment and look friendly. Or really sad. ;-) I'd like to thank Chris for being a tired old man and not coming with me that night, Rob for lending me his balls a few months back, my sister for leaving town and not inviting me, and last but not least Craig over at Eyesaw for reminding me that I should try something new every day.

Big ups to Annabelle's Candy Co. for making Abbazabas...you people rock my sweet tooth...

There's no accounting for taste

Rob over at Be Less Boring found this list of 100 albums that should be removed from your cd collection.... these guys must be joking. Or really bitter, really shitty musicians. They trashed generic bands like The Gin Blossoms and Offspring who I don't give a crap about one way or the other and the extremely irritating Celine Dion (thank you for that one!). So, they aren't completely retarded. But U2's "War"? INXS's "Listen Like Thieves"? And the Beastie Boys?? Three times, even?!? C'mon! That shit is classic! Even if it's just for the nostalgia factor, I can't support 3/4 of the albums on their list. Sure, we all make the occasional music purchase faux-pas... for example, I must have been on crack the day I bought Snow's "12 inches of snow" back in 1993. Go ahead and laugh....I'll wait...... Ok, now the reason I haven't gotten rid of it (or any of the cassettes I haven't gone out and bought on cd) is because every time I look at it, I laugh. I think if it as the mullet of my music collection. Sure, it's just sitting there collecting dust, but it cracks me up that I have it. Anything that makes me a laugh for whatever reason is a keeper no matter how bad it is.

Head games

One more softball game left and one more chance to break the losing streak our team has been on... the game was really close, though. We ended up losing by one run in international rules overtime (has anyone else ever heard of this??). To console ourselves, we drank some beer and ate some greasy food at High Street. Good times.

I know I said I wasn't scared about playing after last week, but I felt kinda sketchy throwing the ball back and forth during warmups. Not scared, exactly...just....I dunno what. I kept stepping back from the throws and was hyper-conscious of how close the ball came to my face. The weird part is that I didn't have any problems once I got out in the field or stepped up to the plate. Bizarre, huh?

If you're listening....

They Might Be Giants are going to be in my town tomorrow!!! ....and they're not stopping until they get to Portland. D'oh. I'd really like to have a chat with whoever is in charge of this stuff and let them know there are people in Eugene who like music too, dammit. I know, it's sorta poh-dunky, but it's a college town for cripe's sake. TMBG's core audience is made up of college kids. Do the math, man.

Got a call last night from a friend who lives in Toronto and he asked if I was scared to play ball tonight because of "the incident" last week. And my dad offered to get me a catcher's mask, just in case. I play 3rd base, so I'm thinking that'd make me look like a wuss. Nah...I'm a trooper. Now, if I get hit in the face again, I'm gonna start thinking I have some bad karma coming to me for some bad stuff I did in a past life or something, but I still won't be afraid to play. I'd just be horribly disfigured. Brave and horribly disfigured.

Maybe it was already broken

You know how we all poke around other weblogs, regularly revisit the ones that in some way speak to us or belong to people we know and throw our two cents worth of support or damnation into comments boxes? That little bit of recognition - just knowing that something you've written has affected a friend or random stranger enough to elicit a comment - creates a weird bond between the writer and the commenter. Makes us feel as though a personal connection has been made and more often than not, commenters and writers become familiar acquaintances or closer friends... what I can't figure out is why that doesn't carry over into real life. If you're having a generic conversation with someone on a bus or in a restaurant or any public place and a random stranger overhears it, even if they have something to contribute to the conversation, it's not likely they'll just jump in and give their opinion of whatever you're talking about (unless they're off their nut wasted). There isn't any rule of social conduct that prohibits it, but it just doesn't happen. So, why is it that we, the webloggers of the world, can make complete strangers our familiars and friends with no face time, but so many of us have fallen into the desolate wasteland of the post-collegiate social pool? It is timing? Location? Would the ties we've made with other bloggers carry over into telephoned invites to dinner parties and movie nights and poker parties and jell-o wrestling in the kiddie pool if we all lived within driving distance? Has writing our lives out for the world to read stripped us of our ability to have a meaningful conversation with our friends because they've already read about the generic details on the internet? Damn that Ezra guy over at Holy Crap for making me think.... maybe we can go grab a beer and talk about it...

Jimmy broke my heart

I'm so in love with the new Jimmy Eat World album. I got it yesterday and it kicks serious pop ass. Plus, Rachel Haden from That Dog did guest vocals on a few of the tracks. Aw yeah. If you know what's good for you, you'll go out and get it right now. No, seriously, don't just sit there...go! Alright, you can finish reading this, but then you need to get off your sorry butt and hightail it to the nearest music store. If you're lucky enough to live in or near a city where they're stopping on their current tour, go see the show, work your mojo to get backstage, and tell them Nina sends her love. xo

Went to Sam Bond's Garage last night with Chris, Jen and Nick to see this jug band (there's no jug player, so I'm not sure if they should really be called a jug band, but whatever) I've seen around town a few times. Good stuff... however, they have a Deliverance kinda look going on, so while I'm normally into musicians, I'm gonna have to pass on these guys. Got home just after 2am, so I'm running on about 4 hours of sleep. I'd like to say I'm good to go today and ready to head out and fire it up again tonight, but the truth is...I need a nap. And a shower.

In other news, my fat lip is mostly gone. Vioxx is my new friend.

Things to avoid saying to me this week

1. "Oh my God, what happened to your face?"
2. "I didn't even notice that until you said something."
3. "Just looking at you is giving me a stomach ache."
4. "You're lucky. At least you still have your teeth."
5. "Something looks different, but I'm not sure what it is."
6. "You remind me of someone....oh yeah, one of the Simpsons."
7. "So, you wanna go out clubbing tonight?"
8. "Geez, if I looked like that, I wouldn't have left my house."
9. "Does it hurt?"
10. "It could be worse....it could be permanent."

Don't look at me, I'm hideous

A little bit of advice: don't EVER try to catch a softball in your mouth. It doesn't work and you'll end up looking like a plastic surgery case gone wrong. What's that you say? Why didn't I catch the ball in a mitt? Good question. I still have no idea what exactly happened except that I was blinded by the sun and the next thing I knew I was dripping blood. NOT pretty. Strangely enough, I'm wanting to have pictures taken while I still look like a circus freak.... just to remind me later not to even think about getting collagen lip injections. Wish I had taken a picture yesterday before I cleaned my mouth up and put the bags of frozen peas and corn on my face to take the swelling down. Then I could have told people I was a street fighter and while I may have looked bad, you should have seen the other guy...

Who turned up the heat?

Got air conditioning? Ugh. It's ridiculously hot and I can't stand it. Thought my brain was frying on my walk home from work yesterday. And I heard it's supposed to be even hotter today which means the two fan system that's been keeping my apartment considerably cooler than outside but not as cool as I'd like it to be isn't gonna cut it tonight. Isn't it supposed to cool down in the evening?? Last night I was over at my folks' place for dinner and around 10:30 pm, I went out into the garage to leave and I thought I'd walked into a sauna. What happened to the rain? The cloud cover? The cool breeze? This is Oregon, dammit, not frickin' Death Valley! I'm about this > < close to heat exhaustion and you know what happens then, right? Hallucinations and talking gibberish. That's right. Me in my normal state times 1000. If you people know what's good for you, you'll figure out a way to turn the heat down and you'll give me a popsicle while we're waiting. One of those red, white and blue rocket pops.... or a push up.... or even a choco taco would do.... anyone? popsicle? anyone?

I can't believe there's no butter

So, there I was in the office kitchen, waiting for my bagel to finish toasting. I opened the fridge to get out the gigantic tub of margerine for everyone that's usually in there and it's gone. The cream cheese that was in there yesterday got tossed because it was growing a big green afro. The strawberry jam jar is still in there, but it's empty. The individually wrapped pats of butter that were stashed for just such an emergency are nowhere to be found. At that point, I was considering topping my bagel with dijon mustard and pickle juice just so I wouldn't have to choke down dry toast. My stomach was grumbling because I didn't have breakfast and the water I'd been chugging all morning gave me the hiccups so I had to find something to eat. The rest of my lunch consisted of a nectarine, an avocado, a single piece of mild cheddar and a cup of fat free vanilla yogurt. Pathetic. I'd been imagining that bagel, covered in dripping, melted butter that I could lick off the plate when I was done, all morning. *sigh* After a little more digging around, two tiny single serving blackberry jams hidden in a bowl of orange marmalade (eeeww.) surfaced and I figured that was better than old salad dressing and ketchup. It's not so bad if you pick out the seeds....and pretend butter doesn't exist..... *sob*

Back to the grind

I could get used to a 3 day work week. Having 4 days off and nothing planned was sorta nice...the extra sleep made up for the boredom. I actually attempted to go out Thursday night, but when I got to Jo Federigo's, it was empty and dark. Guess the dueling fireworks displays on the opposite sides of town caused a crimp in the space-time continuum and all of the stuff that was previously scheduled at the same time just got lost in the process. I'm gonna try to go tonight and see if it was just me or the holiday. I haven't ever been to the open mike night at this place, so it should be interesting. Not that I'm going to sign up to sing or anything... because that would NOT be interesting. That would just be bad. I don't think anyone but me would appreciate my punk version of "Pennies From Heaven"...

Why I oughtta....

Damn kids playing their sucky ass music ridiculously loud and partying on the deck outside my bedroom window at 2am... people are trying to sleep, dammit!! I understand they have no concept of time or adult responsibility, but frickin' hell!!! How many times do I have to ask them to keep it down? Even more annoying is the fact that I sleep in next to nothing, so I have to fumble around in the dark for pajamas before I open the window and explain to the drunken idiots on the deck that they sound like a herd of wild goats stomping around in my bedroom. I swear to gawd I should be kicking ass and taking names.

Damn, I sound old.

Playing catch up

Ever have someone you haven't thought about in years suddenly call or send you a letter or send an e-mail your way? It's sorta weird and sorta cool but usually just proves that some things never change. So, yesterday I decided to shoot an e-mail to a childhood friend who I haven't seen or heard from in about 8 or 9 years. His family lived next door to mine in California when I was 2 and he was 4. After we moved to Guam when I was 6, Robert's family came to visit us and then came to see us in Santa Fe when I was 13 and we all went to Canada together a year or two later. We haven't seen each other since I was staying with my grandparents one summer during college.

My mom and his have kept in touch all this time and I get the occasional update about what's going on with him and his two brothers after our moms spend a few hours on the phone. He was the first boy I ever had a crush on and I remember thinking when I was about 4 or 5 that we'd get married but still live next door to each other because I didn't want to have to share my stuff with my sister AND him. As we got older, I remember him being really mean to me and acting like he hated me when anyone was around, but then was nice and fun to hang out with when we were alone. And people wonder why men freak me out... Anyway, my mom had mentioned to me the other day that she and Robert's mom had spent about 2 hours catching up on the phone and told me what all three boys had been doing for the last year or two. Must have had that in my head because I had a dream about this time Robert and I got busted by my dad for sitting on top of the washer in my kitchen on Guam and cussing just to be cussing. Funny thing is, my dad never said anything and never told anyone about it. Weird. So, on a whim, I decided to look up his company online and see if I could track him down. I did and we caught each other up some about what we're doing, who we're not dating, and where we're living. It'd be interesting to see him now that we're adults just to see if age and maturity have anything to do with each other...

Short Week

Just got the ok to take Friday off, so I'm looking at a 4 day weekend. Yeah baby, yeah! Since my sister is coming home this Friday from Brazil, I'll have an extra day to get my house clean and stock the fridge and do laundry. Knowing my luck, though, she'll sleep the whole time she's here. D'oh.... I guess if I'm going to all the trouble of stocking the fridge and cleaning, I could always have a little shin-dig.

On a totally unrelated note, I've had that Jimmy Eat World song "Sweetness" in my head all morning and when I went to my local cd store to buy the new album, they were sold out. The dude behind the counter said to come back next week when they get their next shipment. Damn. So I'm stuck with this song in my head for a week unless I can find it somewhere else and if I can't, I'm afraid my brain might explode.