Emergency Lights

It was a more or less good weekend. Saturday was supposed to be a LOTR (that is, Lord Of The Rings) movie night, but we ended up going swimming (and skinny-dipping), eating chips and watching 10 Things I Hate About You. It wasn't overall bad, I did feel a little sick at around 1, so I slept in Sams room while everyone else was sleeping on the floor of the living room.

The next day Mara, Elliott, Chase, Emily and I went out for breakfast. Afterwards I stopped at Doug's to say hello. We played on the swing set and decided to go back to Philly to chill. I cut his hair, we ate dinner, hung out, watched The Graduate with my parents then watched 300. Side note, its not a bad haircut. Its just different.

He slept over, then left on an early train to help his mom pack. Later that day I picked him up and we went over to Gabo's for her party. Good party. Everyone sort of hung out and gave each other bad body-marker tattoos for a bit. Then off to the Quarry for some swimming (the water was so nice). We had dinner and the orange Jello eating contest, then some watched some Futurama till I had to leave. I drove Doug home, then drove back to Philly - and found the most unbelievable parking spot right outside my house at 12:30 on a Monday night that I didn't even have to parallel park into!!! So happy. That is such a rarity.

Anyway, the next day I hung out, did homework and got paid for the benches. I got 480 for 49 hours of physical labor. Thats about 9.79 an hour. I was under the impression that it was: 20/hour or 500 each bench. I got neither. So I presented my case at the dinner table, and got them to up the price, it is going to be settled out of court, for a currently unknown sum.

The next day I got myself a haircut. She thinned my hair a lot :( , so it feels really weird to me, so light. But overall, its just about an inch shorter all around. Not really a huge change. That evening there was Rocky Horror Picture Show playing in Headhouse Square (right outside my house) - it was a lot of fun. Even if I missed the first few minutes and they showed the US (versus the UK) version.

Overall, its been a pretty decent weekend. It would have been better if I hadn't gotten all those bug bites or that rash (I must have touched some plant with my leg, very gross looking). Other than that, its been fun.

Here's the whole story:

I wanted to go to the Wolf Parade show, but seeing as I don't know anyone who knows them, I wasn't going to go. Mike calls up the days of the show, he's got two extra tickets for me and someone. Sadly, D is out of town, so he couldn't come with. At the show we tried to sell the ticket - and, strangely, we saw some dudes walking towards the box office, so we asked "hey, you guys need a ticket?" they scowled "no, we're in the show." Uh.. yeah, turns out, those dudes were Wolf Parade. How awkward.

The show started out oddly, we met up with some of Mikes friends and the first band came on. I thought that kid was just a sound checker - he set up some stuff and then, started playing. It was weird, just him, a laptop, tiny sound mixer and a microphone. I was completely and entirely captivated by the music. I think his name was Newt.

The next band, Plants and Animals was made up of three dudes with crazy hair. Their music wasn't exactly memorable, but their stage presence made up for it. Weird, two guitarists and a drummer, no bass.

After the second opening we stood around in the crowd (yeah, I was 10 feet from the stage, like always) waiting. I did see this guy that was at the Modest Mouse show the night before, he waved. More and more waiting then Wolf Parade came on. It was awesome, good music, good stage presence, great mosh pit - I do wish I had gotten some merch. Ah well, next time.

Later Mike and I got pizza, he slept over and left this morning. It was pretty fun, I'd say.

Note: The word bass and base really bother me. Bass is pronounced with a short up "a". Rhymes with race. But bass should be said with a longer "a" like in the fish, sea bass, or like sass. For some reason, I feel like the word pronunciations should be fixed, so they both don't sound the same.

Edit: Spelling. And also: I got myself terribly confused with the note. So, I changed it, now it says what I wanted it to say. Also, thank you, D, for correcting my mistake.

The Modest Mouse, to be completely honest, was so not worth the money. It was all pretty routine, we got a taxi to Festival Pier and got in no problem. We stood around near the front and met some people - no one worth seeing again, but they seemed ok. The first band came on, some dude with a really awesome beard, they were not memorable. The second opening band was better (called, Band or Horses, or something like that) - better, but still not that fantastic. The third, and last, opening band was this wimpy white guy with a whole turntable setup (he even had the metallic way-too-big jacket) ans two black guys with microphones. Rap at an indie concert, really weird.

So Modest Mouse came on, and, well, I'm not a big fan of their music - its ok, but not really my thing. The concert would have been way, way better if a) it wasn't raining b) there were less big drunk dudes in the mosh pit c) there were more of my friends there d) the opening bands were better e) Modest Mouse had any stage presence whatsoever or f) they participated with the audience at all.

Anyway, I did have a drag of a cigarette - and well, smoking isn't how I remember it. I coughed and I remembered a lot of awful stuff.

Needless to say, the show was iffy, but at least I was out doing something. Sure beats shuffling around the house.

Note two: Today is the day, I think, that I do some summer reading. Man, I wish they were better books.

Edit: Deleting some too-much-information stuff.

Anyway, last night my family went out for a very expensive dinner at, what my dad named, "The Brazilian Steakhouse." How it works: you go up to the most extensive salad bar on the planet, pick out some delicious starters and eat. Then, you turn over a little card (green on one side, red on the other) and over walks guys in gaucho pants with big cuts of various meats on skewers. They slice you off some meat and walk to another table. There were 13 different types of meat (all, I will add, delicious). You turn your card back to red (to stop) and out comes a plate of fried bananas, fried polenta and garlic mashed potatoes. Then you eat. It was, completely fabulous. Later, out comes this big cart filled with dessert wines and other alcohol. The guy tells you about each one, lets you try a few of the ones he thinks you might like, then, if you want, you can have a tiny tiny glass of whatever you choose. For me, he picked out a liche flavored ice-wine (the grapes are frozen on the tree, before hand picked). It was, fantastic.

Needless to say, both my parents got really drunk (with two bottles of red wine, two glasses of ice-wine and one glass of fire-water grappa). It was RJs going to college dinner. Very fun. Super delicious.

Note: Roger leaves on the 21st for Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Across the country, away from his cute little sister and his crazy parents.

Note number two: The boys (you know, the geek gang) left for Topsail today. Hope they come back tan.

Edit: Deleting some not-important-actually-really-creepy stuff. :)

Every couple of weeks I think about deleting this blog. No one reads it, this is purely so that I can have the satisfaction of writing down things that happen in my life. Someday, I might transfer them into facebook note format, but, I'm not sure I want anyone to read these (other than, of course, my very close friends). It could be weird.

Anyway.

Again, I am at my Grandparents house. I feel like I've spent more of my summer in goddamn Cape Cod that at my own new house in Philadelphia. I guess it could be worse, it could be so much worse.

So, I seem to have a lot of weird coincidences, all through out my life over short periods of time the same words, phrases, people seem to show up over and over again. The last few weeks its been Canada. My boyfriends mom is moving there, and right now they are visiting there. My old friend wants to go get legal pot in Canada. Roger was singing the "Blame Canada" song from some South Park movie. Alex and I were talking about the Northern Lights we are gonna go see, in Canada. Someone told the "CND" joke (you know, "how do you spell your countrys name?" "C, eh? N, eh? D, eh?"). I hope Canada can stop being brought up for a few days (besides, uh, by Doug, who has been telling me about what he's been seeing there).

So, it looks like I get back next Sunday. Then maybe Gabo is having a mini birthday thing and Sam and I are having a mini party (before the big party on September 1). Man oh man, all the preemptive karma sure as hell better pay off for an awesome end of summer and a fantastic beginning of senior year.

Also, I did get to go shopping at the Providence mall. Got some new cords and long sleeve shirts, and a new sexy-without-being-horribly-reveling bathing suit. Hope Ben has another pool party before summer ends.

Note: What rhymes with perfect? And can you think of any words that have a hyphenated prefix? Like.. pre-[word].