obfuscated girl

friends with benefits

I saw these guys last night. There is a whole set of them and their sweat stains (apparently the indoor setting on my camera is very good at picking up sweatstains) at the photojournal. I almost didn't get to see them and I almost caused my friend and her boyfriend to break up because she asked him if he would go see them and he hates them with a fury that I do not understand. How could anyone hate Maritime? They are made of kittens and marshmallow fluff and guitar chords and excellent lyrics. However, through feats of skill and magic that nearly involved me bribing my friend to go with me and paying him an additional $10 if we counted eight star tattoos but instead involved him finally relenting and hanging out and mocking hipsters (he too hated Maritime, but more on principle) at bars in the area. It was one of the best shows I have ever seen despite the girls standing immediately to my left kept screaming "DAVEY U R SO FUCKING HOT" and dancing "seductively" with each other. I couldn't make myself stop grinning hours after the fact.
I missed these guys except for the last four seconds of their last song, but those four seconds helped a good deal in coping with the loss of Troubled Hubble.
In any case, Mr. Von Bohlen, if you are reading this, I am sorry that my friends hate you.

dating tips

First of all: Why more people are not fucking listening to this band is way beyond me. Listen to this. Right-click and save it. Right now. Fucking do it.
Second of all, I have been working at a dating service for the past four days and will continue to do so at least until the end of this week. I stole (yes) a copy of the First Date Tips these people send out to their clients as part of the welcome packet I stuffed into envelopes this morning, and here are the best ones:

Know the titles of at least three books on the New York Times best-seller list.This will create the impression you have read three books from the list. (emphasis added)

Know how to tell at least one joke well. No R-rated jokes allowed. Also avoid jokes involving priests, rabbis, evangelists or blondes.

Know how to pronounce correctly the last place you traveled to. This is less important if the last place you traveled to was Hutchinson, Kansas.

Know the difference between a Cabernet and a Chardonnay. Better yet, watch the oenophile flick Sideways before the date. You do know what an oenophile is?

Dear God.

and the sky is gray (and the sky is gray)

I am writing this with the five o'clock news on in the background and it just informed me that the windchill factor is making it feel like TWENTY EIGHT DEGREES. There are snow flurries outside my window and all the leaves on all the trees on my block seem to have disappeared overnight. It is also apparently according to the five o'clock news imperative that I know that two actors on Grey's Anatomy got into a fistfight on the set.
I sure hope the cast of Six Degrees isn't too traumatized by this.

the world won't wait, so i better shake that thing right out through the door

So those of you who are sick of me being cryptic:

I went to New York for four days. I spent a night inside an airport. I would prefer not to do that part again. This was the first time I had been on a plane since I was seventeen. There is, like, no excuse for that. I badly want to go back. I badly want to travel more. I have been galvanized. Also to have something to come back to (still gainfully unemployed and still with friends who work) would have been really nice. I loved being around so many people and am having a lot of trouble readjusting to being alone, which spparently makes me completely the opposite of every person I met/traveled with. People who need people who need, uh. Pretzels. There is so much out there that I want to see and I hate that I can't right now and I loved the parts of New York that I saw but there was so much that we didn't see.
There are pictures of the journey (when are there not pictures) here.
Next time, Sarah Jessica Parker. Next time.