snowed-in sleepover

I can't believe it's been almost a month. I had a birthday since then. My new age is very significant to me. I have to admit that I don't much like it, but maybe it will turn out to be just the thing?

Today was a snow day, but I had already taken it off, so it didn't have the usual thrill. I finished my shopping and ate an extended remix of a lunch with Mollie. The Bloody Mary made time not matter.

I didn't go to Chicago like I said I would, but I had a Snowed-In Sleepover at Alice's involving Cosmos, hot chocolate with Bailey's, TV, snacks, and waiting for the snow to fall. Also, Alice put a hot water bottle in my bed, and it rocked my world! In the morning was sleeping late, then tea, coffee, muffin halves, Christmas card preparing, both of us doing stuff on our Macbooks, reading, napping, Indian food, triple layers of socks, and, finally, digging out just before the sun went down.

It's my second or third ever Snowed-In Sleepover, and I can't say enough good things about it. Let's have more snow, and more corresponding sleepovers!

God, maybe I need a roommate. Is my enthusiasm for the Snowed-In Sleepover really just about human companionship?

I got a digital camera for my birthday, bringing me that much closer to not being totally lame. Sometime around 2012, I should finally get an IPod.

beginning to see the li-ight

I saw Yo La Tengo last night at the Detroit City Fest thing. It was so, so good. I love them. I would like to try being Georgia for a day or two. Hell, I'd even like to try being Ira. They are just so cool without needing to be cool. They did a lot of songs that I love, a lot of awesome wall-of-sound type stuff, as well as quieter stuff. I love a wall of sound, especially while under the darkening sky. And the haze of barbecue smoke added a lot! Mmmm. At one point it seemed like an amalgam of barbecue smoke and fresh-from-the-can tuna. I must have really liked YLT to put up with that!

I went by myself, which was my choice. I will never not do what I want to do just because no one can join me (I dare you to translate that sentence!). But it was just a little depressing, I must say. I saw one dude I used to know, and it was a continuation on a recent theme of seeing people from the past who I have not exactly missed seeing around. I would love to run into people from the past that I have missed seeing around, but... Nope. Instead my fate is "too-tight-in-the-butt-overalls guy," "ethiopian-food-smeared-up-to-his-elbows-guy," "stare-at-my-tits-guy," and "hide-next-too-my-garage-until-i-get-home-and-then-try-to-make-out-with-me-even-though-i'm-your-friend's-boyfriend-guy." Oh, and "protest-the-state-of-the-world-by-refusing-to-vocalize-guy." Yes, I've seen all of these former would-be boyfriends, although I managed to avoid actually talking to most of them. God. Why are these the dudes I have stories about? Where are all the awesome ones from my past? I guess there really weren't many.

I'm listening to the Velvet Underground. On those 100% humidity summer days in Japan, when I had to put the office mandated hosiery on my sweating legs, I listened to "Beginning to See the Light." Somehow it got me pumped up to do what needed to be done.

So, I also saw the Hentchmen at the City Fest (why do I hate writing "City Fest?") with Deborah and Isidora. We were assaulted by a freak gust of hurricanic wind. Otherwise it was great. I hadn't seen them play in forever. So fun and good!

AND I saw the Buffy musical at a midnight showing, with Jen and Lisa. I liked it, because it's the Buffy musical, and as Lisa said, involved movie-screen-sized Spike! But I'm just not all that wacky. We were encouraged to be wacky.

I spent the first part of today reading Persepolis 2, after just having re-read Persepolis. I liked the story so much. Her drawings weren't as good, though. I wonder if she was rushed to complete a sequel? Some of them looked like planning-stages sketches. Still, it was awesome and makes me want to draw. All I need is some motherfucking motivation. Can I hire you to hang around my apartment and prod me with a pointy stick when I get lazy? I hate being lazy. I do. It is a straight line from lazy to depressed for me. But laziness is so easy. So I need a prodder. You will also be required to fetch beverages for me.

I'm writing at a coffee shop. Now I'm listening to the Johnny Thunders song "Hurt Me," and my headphones came unplugged, and I treated everyone around me to his high pitched, "Oh, hurt me!"

Need a new goal

Waaah! I can't get over the sheer productivity of Dave Eggers. I was just on the McSweeney's website - and that dude has started a whole slew of non-profit kids' tutoring centers focused on writing! Maybe they've been around awhile, but this is the first I've heard of them. There's one in Ann Arbor! The website is amazing and the workshops look great. I wish the fourteen-year-old me could take one. Could I still pass for fourteen, do you think?

Yes, productivity. The one magic wish I want for myself is productivity. Although I did grade almost 250 pieces of student work Saturday, which is saying something. Maybe it's drive that I'm lacking. Dave Eggers must have a lot of drive, running a publishing house, writing long books, and now these tutoring centers. I finished What is the What today. I loved it (thanks, Jen!). My students are even referencing it, just because I told them about it. "That reminds me of What is the What," they have said a few times lately.

I have a writing date with Mollie for Thursday night. Perhaps that is the day I'm destined to discover my inner drive at last.

Last night was Mollie's b-day party. I loved everyone there. It was great fun. Kuntry Luv (our band of yore) had a 3-song reunion. We sang our biggest hit, the hymen song. I also co-created a new secret handshake of sorts, and talked lots to M's Arkansassy brother, Charlie.

All night long I had the urge to do a backbend, the splits, or to put my foot behind my head. All signs that I'm feeling pretty good about things. Oh, and I'm a sofa owner. It will be in my possession within a couple of weeks. My long-term goal has been realized sooner than I expected. Now I need to identify a new long-term goal. Any ideas?

year of clubs (not diamonds, hearts, or spades)

This time of year, I try to catch up on what I've missed, I read lots of magazines and short stories, and I look at cookbooks, imagining that I'm going to pickle more vegetables and try out neglected grains in the new year.

New Year's Resolution: PICKLE A DAMN VEGETABLE AND COOK THE MILLET IN THE PANTRY. Last year's was READ LESS. I failed terribly, although I have read less than normal in the last few months. Otherwise, I read too much, just like usual. I'm a failure at not reading too much.

My long-term life goal is PROCURE A SOFA, COUCH, OR DAVENPORT. It used to be PUBLISH SOMETHING.

Was 2006 good, or not good? It was good and not good. Duh. But I see crystal-clear-like that I need more socializing in my life. So I'm going to make a DINNER PARTY CLUB, WITH THEMES. Themes like "KAMPAI!! IT'S A JAPANESE AVANT-GARDE DINNER!" My fear is that I just don't have enough people to invite, and my friends will be like, "Um, do I really have to wear a Japanese avant-garde outfit?" and I'll say, "No, it's ok, just be comfortable," and then it will just be a regular dinner with my friends, but with screechy japanese music playing and inedible seaweed items.

Maybe I could advertise my dinner parties on Craig's List. But then I'm afraid that the whole thing will be misread as a belabored euphemism and will produce some kind of awkward sexual situation.

I have been reading top ten lists on Salon and in the NYT and Punk Planet to see what I missed this year, musicmoviebooks-wise. It seems like I saw hardly any movies! What's wrong with me??? I can't make up my own top ten movie list. Deborah and I are going to see either Volver or Babel on Monday. We agreed to see something with a one-word title.

I know! I'll start a Film Viewing, Discussion, and Making Club in 2007 to remedy this whole sitch. Watch Detroit Craigslist for more info on this great new club! And, no, it's not meant to be a euphemism for sex.

Mostly 2006 feels barely there to me. I need to work for a better 2007, with more adventure and fun. Did you know I'm the adventurous, fun type? I like to have stories. STORY CLUB!!!

Instead of being all kinds of fun, I'm ending the year feeling melancholy and restless and hard-hearted and nostalgic. Do I need to start clubs for those traits to help draw other MRH-HN's towards me?

MORE CLUBS IN 2007!!! (How many will my small but super cool gang of friends be willing to join?).

on christmas eve eve eve

Lately the thing to do at gatherings of ladies is to take silly pictures of ourselves. The ladies left just now and I still have the taste of smoked cheese and spanish wine in my mouth. how i love the ladies. so i got to think of how i say merry christmas, how i myself express that sentiment, and i thought i could do it verbally, like "merry christmas" or "joyeux noel" or "meri kurisumasu" or "god jul." or....OR i could let a picture do the talkin'. one of these images could show up in a mailbox near you, in the name of the birth of jesus or whatever:

Things I've Been Doing

Listening to Handsome Family, Kristin Hersh, Brendan Benson, Mazzy Star, and Hoaiho.
Wearing a lovely new blue wrist bauble from Chris.
Wishing for a new woodblock print like this one by Masao Ido.
Bidding on a Finnish mushroom bowl that my grandma g. had.
Hoping against any reasonable hope for a snow day tomorrow (forecast says that tomorrow will be partly cloudy with a balmy high of 45F).
Downloading "Fairy Tale of New York" (Pogues) for my drunken holiday enjoyment.
Looking for various pieces of paper that I misplaced but that must exist somewhere on the planet right now.
Singing, "I could've been someone - Well, so could anyone!"
Avoiding all the usual tasks.
Reading parts of The O. Henry Prize Stories 2006, from the library.
Starting to read Oh Pure and Radiant Heart, which Pam gave me last weekend.
Admiring the paper the aforementioned book was wrapped in.
Flipping through a bunch of magazines.
Oversleeping.
Forgetting my purse.
Eating salsa verde on potatoes.
Fantasizing about doing tricep dips in inappropriate locales.
Attending third grade musicals.
Standing on the desks of third graders to hang things from the ceilings.
Eating pretty cake with Chicago ladies.
Baking cookies with Chicagoans.
Not remembering my dreams at all.
Winning the bid on the finnish mushroom bowl that my grandma g. had.
finding one of the lost pieces of paper.
not going to bed like a good girl...

I have had my ears pierced since about age 13. You'd think I'd have the whole enterprise fairly well in hand by now.

Oh my god. I was going to write about this earring incident, but I took some illustrating photos and they are just too disturbing to show. Truncated earlobes are frightening. At least, mine are.

Instead, I'll tell you that I stopped at my parents' house to put some of my ornaments on their tree. All my old favorites made it on, including the wheat thin that kelly j. and i decorated with sequins and fake pearls as pre-martha high school crafters/sarcastic wheat thin eaters; the yellow piece of play-dough i made a skeleton print in and hung with a red ribbon; and the single section of egg carton that i splashed with sassy red and green paint when i was, oh, quite little, hung with its white pipe cleaner. as i admired these treasures anew, i felt that i hit my artistic zenith long ago. i don't do any cool projects like those anymore. what? YOU want a decorated wheat thin for christmas? hmmm... i might just be feelin' it...

going to chicago tomorrow. my earlobes are going with me. i just re-read the above and realized it kind of sounded like the earring incident resulted in my earlobes becoming detached. that didn't happen at all. now i really can't tell you the story because it would be so dull in comparison.

but i'm going to chicago, and we are going to have ladies' club friday night and i can't wait. then we're having co-ed cookie decorating on saturday night. and i'm going to just let this whole week of busy, busy school days, third grade musical practices, a Bad Tempeh Experience, unsettled contract/unsettled teachers, rumblings of millionaire bahamas-vacationing families thinking i'm spoiled because i have good health benefits, messy apartment, etc. slide away. i'm going to be just like the slider. mark bolan. t. rex. except that when he's sad, he slides, and i'm not gonna be sad, i'm gonna be the ebullient birthday girl.

www.itcamefromdetroit.com

What? You think I'm GLAD the Tigers lost because it made parking downtown easier for me tonight? What kind of person do you think I am? Jeez...

This weekend has made me feel like myself.

Last night, Alice and I went to the DFT to see It Came from Detroit. It was so good - basically I relived my twenties through this documentary chronicling the Detroit garage scene. It made me miss that whole scene, even if I was never part of it from the inside. All the footage of the Gold Dollar was very nostalgic, as were the clips of bands that I've seen time and again, going all the way back to house parties in Ann Arbor. It made me quite happy to see friends, acquaintances, and not a few crushes on the big screen. All my old rock crushes are officially re-activated!

Then, after dropping the early-to-rise Alice home, I met Mollie for dill pickle martinis/beer (you guess who had what). It was excellent to sit at the bar with her and talk and laugh and semi-notice the game on the TV in front of us. I didn't get home until a fairly wee hour, which I like.

Tonight I went downtown again, with Jen and Alice, and though around the corner from Comerica Park, home of the Tigers, we had no problem parking (not that I'm glad about that or anything). We went to Small Plates for dinner, where we drank an awesome bottle of Spanish red wine, ate good food, batted around various topics and ideas, and then...

we went next door to 1515 Broadway where we saw Blair's one-man show, Burying the Evidence. Oh my god! We were all completely in awe of him. His show was unbelievable - so funny and sad and passionate. It's clear that he is doing what he is supposed to be doing, which almost no one can say. His poetry, his songs, his movements were all perfectly done and gave me chills. I heard the guy behind me say, "God, I need to start writing again." That's exactly how A, J, and I felt. Blair's show seemed so professional - like we had paid a ton of money to see a famous performer, not paid a little to see an old friend. I wish everyone could see it.

So the weekend's almost over, and it's almost time to turn the clock back, and I'm ending Daylight Savings time feeling, as I said, exactly like myself.