disaster

why is music such a disaster these days? or not music, i suppose, but anything mainstream. i am inundated with it whenever the radio comes on or if i just want to have background noise via television. it's especially bad, i believe, in south carolina. at least in lynchburg, we had wnrn.

i give up. iTunes it is.

and no, i'm certainly not one of those 'i'm so into indie music and i will look down on you if you ever listen to anything else ever' kind of people--i have my guilty pleasures, but still. it remains slightly depressing.

side note: check out 'what's a girl to do?' by bat for lashes on youtube. i like. see also 'satisfaction' by benny benassi (a eurotrashy disco-y classic, in my opinion, which, randomly enough, i'm very into right now. i blame it on the gym.)

poor baby garner is kinda sick today. he got into a bunch of garbage yesterday and i think today the coffee grounds got him. in every way you could imagine coffee grounds could affect a dog. the funny thing is, if there were another bag of trash here right now, he would prove that he didn't learn his lesson. he'd go straight for it. he's a good dog, just not particularly intelligent.

another five consecutive shift week. two shifts down and three to go. i have a PDR event tonight, which should be 'pretty straightforward.' it's a nice shift to have in the middle of the week, when i'm not feeling especially personable/bouncy/energetic. in the private dining room, people just want to feel special, get their shit done, get their food, and get out. they don't want to hear me tell stories or explain the menu at length. works for me tonight. especially after an uncharacteristically (but welcomed!) busy night last night.

i need to head to the bank shortly. these are my days. i get things done, i suppose, which is good, and i have plenty of time to just hang, which is nice. but every now and then i feel like i should get another job. the only thing with that is i'm already tired after the one at the end of the night. i can't imagine another. i would never hang out with anyone, ever, i'd just be sleeping whenever i wasn't at work. especially with five shift weeks. i think i'll be okay. i just don't have any particularly good stories. unless they take place at night. but such is my life, really, as it's pretty much always been.

rock lobster!

dee la renta?!

another monday. another afternoon of watching complete shit on television due to nothing else being on and me being far too lazy to do anything but.

today it's 'america's most smartest model' on vh1. i do have a defense though, i watch it for andre. anyone who's watched this show knows who i mean and knows that he's HILARIOUS. soviet!

thanksgiving has come and gone and was fantastic. just lots of family and food and it was warm and fuzzy and yummy all around.

i haven't written in a blog in a while and i don't have much to say, unfortunately. perhaps another one later?

p.s. i'm thankful for all of my friends and family and friends who are family who read this, who don't, who love me, and who i love.

sweetness

oh, and how sweet is THIS??

pb&j

so i'm hanging out, listening to some peter, bjorn, and john. today has been fabulous even with the weather being so very virginia-like and by that i mean completely schizophrenic. it WAS cold this morning, wasn't it? i can barely recall because as i drove back from fresh market (pumpkin pie! $5.99! not doing that one from scratch even though it would probably be simpler. i am an overachiever, a self-challenger, hooray for me) it was definitely 77degrees. 77degreesinthemiddleoffuckingnovemberareyoufuckingkiddingmesouthcarolina?!?!?!?!?

how ridiculous.

i am feeling exceptionally happy with my life today. i'm not sure if it's the upcoming holiday(s), family coming into town, a day off of work, coffee with my dad this morning, feel-good music, an enveloping feeling of love from several different people or probably a combination of all of that, but i'm happy. very very happy.

so i started this blog with something to say, i feel, but i can't seem to remember my orginial intent.

last night was silly at work, just silly people who didn't feel like tipping (if you can't afford to go out to eat, don't go out to eat. just because you feel like you have to scrimp on some things in order to buy your friends and family christmas presents certainly doesn't mean that you have to scrimp on tipping ME, your friendly and lovable and attentive server who, by the by, ALSO needs some money to buy gifts for HER friends and family as she does have those and her life doesn't, contrary to popular belief, revolve around serving YOU.) but it was relatively okay in general, really, and i had fun with my co=workers, which honestly, some nights, is more important. between stephanie's elfing of my bosses and kaitlin's christmas idea, i did have a really good time. so if you skimmed over the parenthetical rant, don't bother going back to read it in more detail, folks.

'roll the credits'=worst song on pb&j album. just skip to 'chills' and put it on repeat.

life is lovely.
live.it.up.
em.

reminiscing

so it's monday. i've been to the gym, i've had a nice big relatively healthy breakfast, and then undone all the good gym stuff by eating two extra dark chocolate lindt truffles. they're extra dark though, which means they're okay. dark chocolate is good for you! or something. right?

and now i'm watching the real world: sydney complete with commentary from coral. remember coral, everybody? she was on the real world about a million years ago and then she was on EVERY SINGLE real world road rules challenge ever. anyway, i actually do like her. she's very funny, plus she has that whole independent, strong, i-am-woman-hear-me-roar thing going on, which in some girls is obnoxious but in her works.

people on the real world are sooooo immature and silly. there needs to be a higher age limit or something, maybe that would help. although i doubt it. everyone gets all crazy with a camera in their face, in general, and i can't imagine how that changes when said camera is turned on 24/7.

i was able to speak with caitlin yesterday, which is always nice and although i don't want to feel like i'm bugging her, i always want to happen more often. every-other-day more often. i miss her. and i'm glad she's doing well in nyc and i'm glad i'm doing well here, but i still miss her. i just wish i could see her more often, that's all, so there are more times like this, just me and my best friends in the world playing around on a random sunday, eating breakfast together and drinking coffee and lounging around watching stupid television shows.

i honestly don't miss school that much, especially since all the fucked-up-ness that's happening there this year, but i do miss my friends being so close by and i miss my 'sister.'

i miss the smallest things, like i always do, and i knew i would. smoking cigarettes on the curlies, 'lost' in the lounge, skipping geography and playing on her computer instead, small road trips to charlottesville, and dollar theatre 'date nights.'

but i am happy here, don't get me wrong. and when i say i wish i had more money, that's pretty much the only reason why--so i can travel and see everyone and make positively SURE we all stay in touch, because it is TOOO easy to lose touch, even with blogs and facebook and myspace and cell phones and skype. all this technology, yet it's sometimes almost easier to lose touch, ignore people, forget people...

i love living here, with nate, with the dog and the cat, with my job, relatively close to some friends and family, i do. but of course there's always people and places i want to visit...i want to go on adventures! and adventures will come some day and i'm pretty damn convinced that in the end, caitlin and i will end up being little old ladies with houses right next door to one another, reminiscing on the back porch in our rocking chairs about how crazy we were back in college and how silly we were for missing each other so much after college, because of course we would end up close to one another, eventually.

in the meantime, i worked my five consecutive shifts last week and survived (!) i work tonight also, but then i have three days off in a row, which is perfect, since family family family is coming in to town!

i've never been so excited for thanksgiving. dad's coming in late tonight. i think tomorrow the two of us are going to maybe go to the gym together and then definitely go do coffee and catch up. he's been up in saratoga since august and the two of us haven't seen each other in a while, although we have been writing letters (yes, real letters) back and forth on a regular basis. but i'm excited to do coffee with him and actually speak with him about all the cool stuff that's happening in saratoga. he seems to be having a really good time. then i guess becca comes in maybe tomorrow or something, and i haven't seen her in about a month, so i'm definitely excited to see her too. then my cousins, aunt, and uncle are coming up from atlanta on wednesday and thanksgiving is thursday!!

thanksgiving is the only holiday, i maintain, that gets better as you get older. well, halloween maybe also. and new years. but that's it. either way, thanksgiving this year is going to be mucho fun. i want to bake an apple pie from scratch. we'll see how that goes. i've been on a bit of a baking spree for about a week now.

i want to go bungee jumping.

live.it.up.

em.

cats v. dogs

cats don't eat the cookies you just baked. cats don't need walks on cold days when you don't feel like going outside. cats don't whine at your cell phone when it rings. cats don't eat nasty stuff from the trash. cats don't eat ibuprofen and make you worry about how bad ibuprofen could possibly be for cats.

but cats don't have those puppy dog eyes and cats don't jump on you when you come home and cats could never protect you if an intruder came in your house or something.

so yes, i'm a cat person, but i also have a fondness for those of the canine persuasion.

le beaujolais nouveau est arrive

wednesday, november 14th. how odd for it to be mid-november, yet 77 degrees outside. it's a lovely day, i'm not sure why i'm spending it indoors. other than the fact that i suppose there's not a whole lot to do outdoors.

i already took garner for a walk, after a small battle involving a rawhide, snarls, and great amounts of frustration. no more rawhide for garner, he turns into mr. hyde. ha ha, rawhide, mr. hyde...

work yesterday was fantastic. again, the three days off previous were perfect. having three days off gives me time to actually miss work, and want to be there, amidst the drama and the laughter, and everything else. i do wish i was off tomorrow, however because...

1) BEAUJOLIAS NOUVEAU PARTY! Gervais and Vine, a wine and tapas bar located in the Vista and a restaurant in the same company as mine is having a Beaujolais Nouveau party tomorrow night, the same night that "Vista Lights" begins. i am slightly obsessed with beaujolais nouveau after mom buying some and cracking it open around thanksgiving a few years ago. to me, beaujolais nouveau represents quite a few things i love: wine, thanksgiving (FOOD), family, and france. so basically, IF i had off tomorrow, or even IF i just got off a little earlier than usual tomorrow, i could go see pretty twinkle lights on Gervais St., drink my special frenchie wine, eat scrumptious frenchie food, be my little frenchie self, even here in the south of...not france, and have fun fun fun.

2) Mackenzie Eddy singing SOLO, also part of the Vista Lights celebration. She's one of about three people I still sort of keep in touch with from high school and she's one of the most incredible singers you'll ever hear in your life and she's performing tomorrow in front of what could become a very large and diverse crowd. i try to sort of keep up with what she's up to, if only to be able to say, 'i knew her when...' but also because she's soooo freaking talented, it's exciting to see where she's headed. i know she was singing as part of a band for a while, but apparently she's doing something toute seule tomorrow. i would love to see her.

BUT alas, i am working. and honestly, if we are kinda slow, which we very well may be, seeing as all the excitement seems to be happening downtown, i can hopefully make it down at some point. there are so few things here that do seem legitimately cool, i like to take part in them. the whig dance parties, cocktails at goatfeathers with fun people, wine tastings, vista lights and beaujolais nouveau parties all fall under the 'legitimately cool' category.

but for now, i'm off to make some coffee and smoke some cigarettes, and get prepared to go to work.

live.it.up.

em.

la di dah

the more i think of it, actually, the better the idea of a blog is. how else are we all expected to keep in touch? i have friends in nyc, oregon, prague, denmark, england, china, france...we all need blogs! i suppose in addition to said blog, we also need fun stories to tell via the blog. that i don't have at the moment, but stories will come, i'm sure.

in the meantime, i'm wasting time before work watching vh1's '40 most awesomely bad dirty songs ever' or something to that extent. it's slightly amusing. it does its job, i suppose. #22--'when i think about you, i touch myself.' yeah, that's only #22!

i've had three days off of work, saturday, sunday, and yesterday. three days off before my five consecutive shift week from hell. not true, i'm sure it'll be fine. i am thankful for having three days off before all of it, though. as much as i love my job, it's still a restaurant and there's still drama and as good as i feel i am about staying out of it, it's still tired and i hate it and it gets old quite rapidly.

so i'm still trying to figure out this whole blog thing...there will be better entries in the future, i promise.

live.it.up.
em.

la premiere...le premier?

megan terry, what can i say? you are an inspiration.

it'll be interesting to see how long this lasts, this blogging thing. at the same time, i feel i need an excuse to practice my writing on a more regular basis and at least for the moment this will satisfy that craving of sorts. plus, i can't seem to find my moleskine.

for those who don't know/do care, a bit of background:



so i'm living down here in the south. the longest i've ever lived here all at once, ever. before, i had only been here the summer before i went to france, so it was more like staying in this one place from may until october. yet here i am, november, and it's actually okay. the weather's gotten more normal because as much as i love sunshine and heat, ninety degrees in mid-october wasn't cutting it.




nate and i are living together in a sweet apartment directly across the street from the wine bar where i serve fairly pretentious (but wealthy!) people fantastic gourmet deliciousness almost every night. i love my job, strangely enough. i thought i would have burnt out by now, but not quite yet. i do, however, need to get my ass in gear and start really studying wine and moving up within the business. i can't be a waitress for the rest of my life. however, i have no problem being a little wine aficianado. a pro wino, if you will. that appeals to me.




nate came with a bit of furry baggage. as did i. we've adopted each other's pets, resulting in a small zoo here at the apartment, with garner the dog and soot the cat. they took a bit to get used to each other but they get along swimmingly and i love having company around when nate's at work during the day. even when it's meowing, eating the trash, slightly hyper/high maintenance company every now and then.



nate teaches sixth grade history at a middle school here and although finding it challenging, definitely also loves it. and he's fantastic at it. and i'm proud of him. to hear more on that, we'll have to convince mr. furr to get his own blog.

so life is lovely, really. i wake up early(ish) almost every morning and head to the gym across the street (i rarely drive--i am saving disgusting amounts of money on gas, i'm sure, it's fabulous), i come back, walk the dog, shower, eat breakfast, hang out, run errands, entertain myself until work which is usually around 4pm. then i work my booty off running around the restaurant all night long and nate walks me back to the apartment...there's a nice sense of routine, but also opportunities for other stuff. saving all the money on gas means there's more for date nights and going out in general, maybe road trips in the near future, and sometimes (although rarely) shopping!

so there you have it. my first blog. feedback always welcome, of course. otherwise, the blog will probably wither away and die. like a plant.

live.it.up.
em.