Well That's Just Great.

It's funny how things work.... this morning on the bus, who's sitting there across from the only open seat but Michael. And who decided it's time to ask me to come see his band play this Friday night? Michael. And who did the famous "I want be close to you but I'm shy" arm squeeze as he got off the bus? Yeah, that'd be Michael. What the crap? Too bad it's too little too late. Damn guy.

This One Might Be A Keeper

I dunno if it's just because of spring or if it's me or what, but I am having a great time with this guy. He called me around noon yesterday as I was walking to catch a bus headed downtown and we decided to meet up for lunch. He took me to a little asian place not far from where he works and we talked more than we actually ate. After work, he brought over The Ring (finally saw it and damn, that's a creepy movie!), Donnie Darko and The Road To Perdition (which we're watching tonight), we ordered in pizza and hung out all night. He called me on his lunch break today to tell me he was thinking about me. Holy schmoly.

So, to sum up, I like him. I'm comfortable with him. I was concerned at first about the age difference (he's 7 years younger than I am), but we're on the same level as far as maturity goes...he may even be more mature than I am... *shrug* And we've got some amazing chemistry. At this point, I'd usually be looking for flaws to find a reason to push him away. The walls I've built around my heart over the years are incredibly high and it's been easier for me to disuade people from trying to climb them than to take them down brick by brick. He's making me consider renting a wrecking ball.

Whee-ha!

Ok, details time. His name is Jeremiah, he looks like he walked out of a magazine and the date last night went so well that he's coming over again tonight to watch movies and asked me to go with him to a show at the Roseland on the 8th. He took me to dinner at a place called Chopsticks over on Hawthorne and then we went over to the Laurelhurst to see Gangs of New York. He held my hand all night and kept calling me "cute girl." We came back here to watch a movie and ended up falling asleep. *sigh* Man oh man.

Oooo, A Date? For Me?

I don't wanna jinx it, but it's not with Michael....had to share....

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted...

It's only Tuesday and I'm already tired. That means I'm due for a nap. Or a vacation. A vacation would be nice. Like to Ireland. Oh wait, I'm going there next year. Ha. Yeah, we finally decided about the family vacation next year and we're going to England and Ireland for two weeks in the fall. I can't wait. I've been looking at the market districts of London and the castles of Ireland and I'm so ready for this trip. Ok, except for the money part. But I have a year and a half to save up for it. And a year and a half to get a shopping list together. And year and a half to practice my accents. And a year and a half to whine about how long it is until next fall. Damn.

Taxes Schmaxes, I'm Gettin' Paid!

Did my taxes over the weekend and found out I'm getting $575 back from federal. Wooooooooooo!

Also, Josh Campbell is a sexy bitch. There, I said it. Are you happy now?

That Sucked. Jerks.

First things first: why didn't anyone tell me that 30 Seconds To Mars was, in fact, not coming to Portland as scheduled? The whole reason I even bought tickets to that crummy show was to see them. Bastards. Second: If you're the headlining band, shouldn't your set run longer than 7 songs? Granted, what they did play rocked, but a 40 minute set was not worth the almost 40 minute wait between Pacifier and Trust Co. dammit. The whole show was over before 11pm. And I actually paid money to sit there by myself (the roomie bailed). Stupid bands. Third: who in the hell is Pacifier anyway? What kind of stupid ass name for a band is that? I'm sorry, but the lead singer's accent didn't save him from coming off as a wanker. The crowd sucked, with eveyone just standing around looking stoned, and they certainly didn't warrant all of the "You guys fucking rock!" that both bands' singers kept yelling between songs. And finally: to the jackass next to me for most of the evening who brought new meaning to the words stupid, drunk and asshole - no, for the 40th time, I don't want any of your beer, so repeatedly trying to force it on me is not winning you any brownie points. If I see you on the street after last night's bullying, I have every intention of kicking your drunk ass out into the street in front of a bus.

And now we return you to your regularly scheduled pleasant Sunday afternoon.

Illiterati And You

Over on Yahoo, there's a game called Literati, which is basically Scrabble but MB has a copywrite on the name. Anyway, I was playing it with Josh pretty much daily ever since I brought this laptop home until recently. Now, I'm all for going out and getting a job or whatever, but dammit, when it cuts into my game-playing...that's just unacceptable. Josh, get a job during normal living hours like everyone else, you jackass!

On a more rockin' note, I'm going to see Trust Co. and 30 Seconds To Mars tomorrow night at the Roseland. Should be a good show and I'm expecting to be deaf for the rest of the weekend. If you need to talk to me on Sunday, I doubt I'll be able to hear the phone, so you'd better just come over and yell at me.

Whoa.

Just when you think no one new is reading, an e-mail shows up in your inbox from a newspaper reporter. He's writing an article on Portland bloggers and wanted to know if it's intentional that I haven't posted any war commentary since yesterday's attacks. He even referenced the post from the 11th and my comments about being sick of the whole thing. Well and so. I'm now stating for the record that I have a strict no-politics rule here at Bursting With Fruit Flavor and I've already beaten myself severely for the post on the 11th. I'm very, very sorry and it won't likely happen again. If, in the future, I should get so riled up about something some politician says or does, you can rest assured that any comments I make about it here will result in further and more severe beatings. Thankyouandgoodnight.

Rather Good

This is some funny stuff. Turn up the sound and check it out.

Mi Casa Es Mi Casa

Starting tonight, I have the house to myself until Saturday. Shauna is heading to Seattle on a business trip and won't be back until the weekend. That's four nights of running around the house naked. Four nights of two hour, guilt-free bubble baths. Four nights of rockstar-style partying. Not that any of those things are on the agenda, but it's nice to know that I could, if I wanted, do any and all of them. ....what the hell am I talking about? I never run, let alone naked, around my house or anywhere for that matter. If I spend more than about 40 minutes in the tub I get pruny and I hate that. All the rockstars I know sit around their houses watching tv and drinking shitty beer like everyone else. The reality of the situation is going to be me, some canvas, some paint, maybe a sketchbook, some pencils and music. There will be a movie thrown in for good measure here and there and maybe I'll crank out some more jewelry to take over to the shop on Hawthorne. Sounds kinda dull, huh? Not to me.... to me, it sounds perfect.

So, I'm Not Really A Loser? Sweet!

Who should show up with cds in hand this morning but Michael. Now, I was thinking as he walked up, "Please turn invisible. Please turn invisible." Since that didn't happen, and he seemed happy to see me, I said, "Hey." and kinda shuffled my feet like an idiot. He gave me back my Elbow cd, which he said he liked, and then gave me one of his band's cds, which I listened to here at work in the hour before we open. Interesting stuff.... kinda 70's lounge/indie rock/pseudo-bluegrass/circus music...if that even makes sense. Anyway, we talked like normal until his stop and he said, "I hope I'll see you here tomorrow." I can only assume by all of this that he did not, in fact, receive a fax from me last week and I can quit feeling like a jackass. However, that does leave me wondering if any asking out is ever going to occur. Once again, visions of myself living in a little apartment with my 14 weiner dogs (an allergy to cats is the only thing saving me from becoming "the weird cat lady"), watching game shows and chain smoking 30 years from now are plaguing me and it's becoming more and more obvious to me that I'm heading down the path to spinsterdom. There's still time to save me from this depressing fate, but I think I've lost the superhero hotline number...

More Of The Same

Tooled around and window shopped yesterday until I picked up Shauna and we headed down to the show. Ryan's sister and her husband came up from Lebanon to visit and check out Dr. Theopolis and they loved it. It was so cute to see Michelle watching Ryan dance around like a sex machine and looking so proud of her baby brother. Shauna was tired after the show, so I dropped her off and went over to the house by myself. Ended up just being me, Dave, Jules, Jasmine (Jules' girlfriend) and Cha-Cha (Jasmine's friend) sitting around watching The Anna Nicole Show... ok, dude, seriously, was that woman a crack addict for the first part of her life and now she's got Ozzy-like brain damage? I felt like I was getting dumber just listening to her talk...or rather, slur. And her poor kid. Oh my gawd. He seems pretty normal and well adjusted, so apparently he hasn't taken after his mother in any way. So, after that was over and Wild On - Ibiza came on, Dave headed off to bed and that was my cue to head home. Sitting around with Jules would have been fine, but I'm still not all that thrilled with his girlfriend. Call me catty, but I'm just not a fan of the plastic type people. Ok, Barbie is cool, but only because she doesn't talk. If she did, I'm sure I'd want to bitch-slap her too. I was tired anyway, so I came home.

Today is laundry day and I've finished two loads, one's in the washer, one's in the dryer and I have two more to go. Between all that, we're finally going to watch One Hour Photo (ooo, creepy Robin Williams) and we've got The Ring, too. I think I'm going to wait to watch that one with Dave later in the week because I've been told it's gonna scare the beejeesus outta me and I'm a big wuss.

Fine, Be That Way.

Well, there was no response, so it looks like I've got no game. I did, however, have a good time at the show and at the house afterwards, so I'm glad I went alone. The beer was cheap, a shot of tequila with JR and Jules started the evening and the usual supects were feeling the love (I must have been tackled and hugged more times last night than in the last two months). Today the sun is shining, I'm not hungover at all, I'm picking up Shauna from the airport at 8:30 and we're heading out to rock again tonight. So screw that damn guy.....ok, maybe he never got the fax.... pssh, whatever. Screw him anyway.

Let The Pointing And Laughing Begin

Sometimes even I wonder what I was thinking. I would like today to go down in the record books as the day I "faxed someone out." Yes, I thought it would be amusing to send a fax asking Michael to the show tomorrow night. One of two things will now happen:

1. He'll find the humor in it and call me tonight to say yes because he likes goofballs.
2. He'll avoid me like the plague because he thinks I'm psycho stalker.

He has my Elbow cd, so decorum requires its safe return, but if he chooses option #2, he could easily give it to Lu to pass on to me since he knows she and I are chummy. If I faxed you out, what would you do?

They're Just So Damn Good

I cannot stress how awesome Sigur Ros and Elbow are. Since that's the case, I'll just shut up about it now. Thankyouandgoodnight.

Say What?

Ok, so war....Bush....UN...blah, blah, blah.... I'm tired of hearing about it, frankly. Shit or get off the pot, dude. I don't want to hear about could this and might that. It's getting old and I'm getting desensitized. The number of protests and protesters "aren't relavent?" So fine. Do something then, for feck sake. Go in, kick ass and get the hell out. Just shut up about it already.

I heard the most ridiculous thing today, second-hand from someone who'd been listening to the radio. The dealie about the French not supporting us has apparently caused some folks to boycott the use of the word French when ordering your fried potatoes at the fast food joints. These people are wanting to call them "Freedom Fries." Pardon my French, but fuck that. No one calls them french fries anyway...they're just plain fries. Jackasses.

Come Out And Play

After spending almost the whole weekend staying in, I'm feeling a little antsy. I wanted to go to Dot's for a grilled cheese sandwich tonight, but didn't feel like going by myself...the plan is to meet up with Owen there, and maybe Matt if he's interested, later this week. This weekend has back-to-back Dr. Theopolis shows on Friday and Saturday, so I have another opportunity to ask Michael to come to a show...if he'd ever show up in the morning. C'mon dude, seriously. Get with it, yo!

A Virtual Buttload of New Music For Me

Yes, it's true, Kazaa has enough music to fill a virtual ass. I've already found a bunch of 80's stuff, the entire greatest hits album by The Cars, a few Strokes songs and some Sigur Ros. Hell yeah!

Oh yeah, random famous dude sighting last night at my cousins' restaurant... Peter Buck from REM was there with his new band. I think they were playing at the Roseland last night, which is right next door, and stopped in for some Cuban food and drinks. When I said something about him to my aunt, who was the hostess for the evening, she said, "Who?" Ah well....

So Much For That

Once the pizza got here and I changed into jeans and my "word to your mother" t-shirt, leaving the house again didn't make it's way onto the agenda. I keep thinking I should go the after hours at the guys' house, but I know as soon as I turn this thing off, I'm going finish my beer, put the rest of the pizza away, wash my face, brush my teeth and hit the sack. As usual, Nina: 0, Apathy: 1. Two reasons why I didn't go out tonight: I didn't feel like going alone and it would have been way more effort than I was willing to exert to get dolled up for the show. I'm not sure why I feel like I have to dress up since I know I'm going to end up hanging out with the same people I always hang out with and go home reeking of cigarettes. I don't even smoke.

One day, I'll get motivated. Not today, but one day.

Disco Inferno

Going out to see four bands at Dante's tonight. It's a release party for a compilation cd called "Falling From The Burnside Bridge" and it's gonna rock. Oh, and no one was at the bus stop this morning. Not even the lit teacher chick I talk to most mornings. Looks like the downpour scared the kids away today. Usually I love the rain, but today it's a little grumpifying. 'Nuff said.

Just My Luck

He wasn't there this morning. Damn guy.

The Time Has Come

I have to ask this damn guy out. This is getting ridiculous. Every morning I think, "This is the day I'm gonna casually ask him to come to a show or go to Dot's with me." And everyday he gets off the bus at the same stop, un-asked-out. Because I'm lame. And a big wuss. Well, dammit, I'm gonna do it. There's a show Friday night that I'm going to one way or the other and I'm gonna ask him to go. I'm gonna ask him tomorrow. No ifs, ands or buts. Just do it. .......maybe.

Some Things Never Change

Another birthday, another screwed conversation with Owen. To quote my friend Matt, "O brings up shit that doesn't need to be brout-n' up at times. Sometimes I think shit just doesn't need to be discussed. Especially if there's a lot of water under the bridge." It's the wise man (or woman) who knows when not to speak and apparently my wisdom doesn't include that concept yet.

On the flip side, I was pleasantly surprised to get a happy birthday phone call from my friend Dave. That was totally unexpected and very sweet of him to remember and call me from work. Looks like he's not as much of an idiot as he and I always say he is...

Hello 29!

Oh my gawd, I'm old. Wait, no, just kidding. I do remember thinking, when I was in my early teens, how old 30 seemed. Now that it's only a year off, I'm thinking 14 seems so very young. Perspective is a pretty cool thing.

They say that with age comes wisdom. On that note, I'm going to share the wisdom I've accrued thus far in my journey through life:

1. The easiest way to avoid disappointment is to have no expectations and simply see where the day takes you.
2. Things are never as bad as they seem while you're right in the moment.
3. If you project positivity/negativity, you're guaranteed to get it back.
4. Surround yourself with people who actually see you - all of your faults and strengths - and love you because of and in spite of those characteristics.
5. There's a huge difference between "I love you" and "I'm in love with you." You shouldn't say either if you don't mean it.
6. Just because the food in the fridge hasn't started growing mold yet, doesn't mean it's still good to eat.
7. Monkeys are infinitely cooler than most people.

The Last Days Of 28

Michael no showed last night, but remember Brian, the Canadian guy I met three weeks ago? Well he came down for the weekend and hung out with us at the show. I didn't know if he was for sure going to be there or not, but he said he tried to e-mail me to let me know he was coming (I never got an e-mail because he was spelling my address wrong). His friend wanted to start driving home right after so even though he wanted to come hang out at the house, he had to go. Bummer deal...he's a sweetie and we click like we've been friends for a long time.

Today, my folks showed up and took me to lunch, a movie and then dinner. Tomorrow they're taking me out to dinner after work to Todai. Woo hoo! 28 has been the most up and down year I've had to date, but at least it's been interesting... and hopefully 29 will be more of the same...