My Left Brain Knows That All Love is Fleeting

Hey, what say we talk about boys tonight? Okay, don't mind if I do. I know I've said it over and over, but this town is sick with boys. I'm sure it's not all that different than your town that way, but if you're a girl you can find almost any level of attention you want from men here. If you want a relationship, however, you'll have to sift through mountains of crap, or move somewhere else. Seein's how I'm just a couple of weeks out of a break-up, I'm okay with the boy scene here. I go out, I have fun, and I don't take anything seriously.

So, this Saturday night when I went to The Picador for an hour or so to see my friends, K. and T., I was a little surprised at a text I received. I had been texting my girls, who were at their dad's. They were both telling me they were home and saying goodnight. I put my phone back in my pocket and felt it vibrating again. When I opened it, the name on the text was Mr. Awesome. (you can read the back issues on him here and here) I was so shocked that I almost dropped my phone. All it said was, "Hello". Now, I've had texts from Mr Awesome a couple of times in the past. One was to apologize and one was to talk shit with me and my friend K. one night when we were out drinking, but I was in a relationship both of those times, so it was just friendly text banter. This time around, it started out as talking shit, but then he got more and more flirty as the night progressed.

At some point during the night, I went back to The Dublin where I was having a dance party and playing songs on the juke box in between texts. Finally, things had escalated and I had enough liquid courage to ask Mr. Awesome what he wanted. He said, whatever I wanted. Then I told him he could drive up here and take me out. He texted back, "Okay". Then I asked him when, and I didn't hear back from him. It was close to bar close at that point anyway, and because of his past behavior, I wasn't surprised.

I gave myself a day or so to figure out what I wanted to do about it. What I decided, was that Mr. Awesome was one of the funniest people I've ever met, and I'm always amused by his drunk texting. I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't going to be any more than that. It's all about expectations with me. So, today I texted him and said something like, "If all you want to do is drunk text me now and then, that's cool. Just so's I know that's all it is."

He texted me back this:

In the process of getting out of a certain situation. Need 2 finalize before any further socializing not including drunk texting. Is that cool smelly butt?

I didn't ask him about his "certain situation", because I don't care. I know, the older people get, the more complicated it becomes to end relationships quickly (especially, if they're living together). I'm glad he told me and I'm glad he wants to make sure its' completely over before he starts anything new. I texted him back this:

Totally. I'm newly single myself. I'm in no hurry. I'm also fine with being friends if that's all you can do.

He responded by saying he thought he'd be out of his "situation" sometime this week. Who knows. I'm happy either way. If anything ever does come of it, at least we're in the same place and I'm sure we'll both want to proceed very slowly and with caution. If it doesn't happen, I'll keep going out and finding fun and I'm sure I'll be getting some hilarious drunken texts in the future. It seems win/win at this point.

Well I'd a Danced Like the Queen of the Eyesores

I think I'll do the Saturday Scavenger Hunt on Sunday again this week. The word this week is old. I suppose I could just post a pic of myself, but instead I'll post a dance party photo or two. I'm sure by now, these dance party pics are getting a little old. I'm not going to lie and tell you I'll never post another one, but maybe next time I do, it will be from a different location. Instead of the Dublin, we might get some shots of the state pool tournament in the Quad Cities in a couple of weeks. I don't play pool myself, but I'm all for being a mascot, or a cheerleader or whatever the hell I'm going to be for the Dublin Girl's pool team.

You might think it would get old ripping open the shirt of a guy who continually wears a snap shirt and forgets to put on an undershirt, but trust me, it's never not funny.

The theme this weekend, and probably every weekend, is how wonderful my friends are. They never get old. Especially when they call me on a Sunday morning and tell me to come over because they're making breakfast and nursing hangovers and talking girl talk and reading Cosmo aloud to each other on our friend's deck.

And food. Food never gets old - particularly when that food is bacon and cheesy eggs and hashbrowns and biscuits AND cinnamon rolls and fruit pizza....

I Would Like You to Dance - Birthday

So, I attended my friend GW's birthday bash and it was super duper fun. Here's her and my friend H., so excited about another of one GW's 28th birthdays, that they had to make jazz hands.

H. left a little early, because her man just got back into town after a week long trip with his guy friends and for some strange reason, they were in a hurry to get home. Hmmmmm.

Here's the rest of us girls supporting GW in her pursuit to celebrate her birthday correctly. We are the best kind of friends that way.

Here's me finally getting a photo of myself and my favorite bartender, S. I seem a little happier about the whole experience than he does, but that's usually how these things go.

Now, I'm going to tell you a little bit about how cool my friend GW is. She used to tend bar at Gabes back in the day when it could be very, very scary. GW was perfect for that place because she doesn't take shit from anyone. She can also be a little bossy, but that never bothers me, because I'm the youngest child in my family and I'm used to that from my siblings. The other two things I love about her is, she's never not fun, and she is a great cock blocker when it is needed.

As Dex put it last night, it's kind of the opposite of a wingman. Don't get me wrong, if it was a guy she thought would be good for me, she would totally be my wingman, but if it's a jerky boy, she has my back. Last night there was a guy who was a little on the relentless side. GW kept telling him that he should leave me alone because I was too old for him. (which was so, so true) When that didn't dissuade him, she told him that I was way too much for him to handle. (which was probably also true) Of course, GW wasn't thinking that saying that to a drunk guy, was really more of a challenge than a turn off. He had to let her know that he was too much for me to handle and that somehow meant that we'd be perfect together. She was eventually able to boss some sense into him and he left us last night by shaking my hand and telling me his name. Man, I love GW.

Here is a picture of my friend D. holding up GW's boyfriend's Sam's club card that must have been taken in the eighteen hundreds. He looks a little like Borat in it, but I blame the Sam's Club people. They were the ones who made him take off his hat.

So, tonight my girl crush comes to town. I just got a text from her that said, "Do ya feel like dancin'? I'm coming to Iowa City tonite." There really was no way to answer that, other than a big, "Hell fuckin' yeah!"

What It Is Ain't Exactly Clear

Here's me fanning myself with my friend's head on a stick. It looks a little disconcerting, doesn't it? (photo courtesy of the Neffs)

The beginning of this post might sound a little bit like that old "Jim's Journal" cartoon. Today I was practical and it was fine. I worked, and then I went to the dentist and had a cavity filled and that was relatively painless. Then I came home and cleaned and finally, I went to yet another of Coadster's choir concerts. See? It was all just fine.

This weekend, though? Guess what's going on in our town this weekend. They're having the funeral for that family that got bludgeoned to death by their dad. It will be so sad and tragic all on it's own. But then that one stupid guy who protests military funerals because somehow there might be homosexuals in the military? Wait. Why is it again that he protests military funerals? Anyway, you know that douche bag I'm talking about, right? He's coming to protest the funeral, because apparently, Iowa is some HUGE mecca for gay tolerance. I've lived here a long time, and I had no idea that was the case, did you? So, from what I hear, there is a group of bikers who come and protest the douche bag homophobe guy and on top of that, there will be tons of cops trying to enforce the new "500 feet protester keep their distance" rule. I guess what I'm saying is, JAAAAAYSUS! I will be as far away from that circus as possible.

What I'll be doing instead is going to The Dublin to celebrate my friend GW's birthday on Friday night. Then on Saturday during the day, I'll meet some friends for sushi and shoe shopping. This, of course, is Stinky's dream afternoon. We did it once before, and she can't stop talking about how much she liked it and how much fun my friends are.

My wish for you this weekend, my gentle readers, is that you avoid douche bag homophobes and unnecessary drama. Amen.

But Everybody Else is Overwhlemed By Indifference and the Promise of an Early Bed

Just so you know, my post has nothing to do with Scarface. I just found this amongst my other pics and I have no idea what the hell I was thinking when I took it. I just think it's funny that I did.

This will be a mercifully short post. Thanks to everyone for all the great suggestions in the last post. It gives me so many things to check out on the web now...You know, because I'm sure I couldn't find anything (cough, Youtube, cough) on my own to obsess over on the lovely internets.

Tonight, the girls were at their dad's house. Now that he's done with his play, I actually have a night or two during the week to myself. (at least after 7, that is) It's kind of nice not to have to hear about what girls in eighth grade are sluts and which boys are stupid players and who broke-up with who and blah and blah. Okay, it's not that my friends don't still talk about that stuff, it's just that with my girlfriends, I at least know who the sluts and the players are so I can join in.

Anyway, I met the supper club gang out for Mexican food and margaritas. It was great, and there was a new woman there who cracked me up and I was so glad I met her. Then I went to the Dublin for one beer with my friend K. and her boyfriend A. before I went home and they went to see the Mekons. I decided not to go to the show because it was late and expensive and the food and the couple of drinks were just enough and the promise of a halfway decent night's sleep was a little more alluring to me. Hey, maybe I am capable of being responsible every once in a while after all.

He Sees the Winding Ocean Drive

Luckily, after yesterday I don't have much to write about. Work is slooooow right now, but we still have to act like we're busy. So, I've decided to work on planning my trip that will take place in almost exactly four months. First I figured out all of the million things I wanted to do and places I wanted to go, then I started honing it down to a more realistic list of things and places.

Of course, it's all subject to change, but right now it looks like this: I'll get off work at noon on a particular Friday and get out of town by one. I'll drive as far as I possibly can and hopefully get through much of Nebraska in the dark. I was going to stop in Denver, but we've been to Colorado before and I'd rather spend that day somewhere else. If anyone knows of a fun place to go to in Wyoming, just off of I-80, let me know. If not, we'll wait until Salt Lake City to stop for a day. After that we'll head to Reno/Lake Tahoe and check out that scene. Now, here's where I had to make a decision. Did I want to go North and check out Napa and the the redwoods in Mendocino and Humboldt where I used to live, or would it be better to go South and see Yosemite, and Sequoia/Kings Canyon and then head to the coast and follow it up, checking out Santa Cruz, Carmel and Monterrey?

If I was going with my girlfriends, I might opt for the Northern route so we could go wine tasting and hang out at a spa. Since I'm going with my daughters, I figure I'll head South and get all different kinds of awestruck by the natural drama.

We'll then spend the rest of our trip in the San Francisco area. Coadster really wants to go to the Haight and Stinky is in eighth grade, so she thinks going to the Hard Rock Cafe sounds super neato. Now, if anyone else has any decent suggestions, I'd love to hear them and check them out on the web from the confines of my very beige cubicle in Iowa, during the coldest Spring I've ever experienced here. Believe me, it really helps to plan on going somewhere far, far away.

What Reason Do You Need to be Show-ow-ow-ow-own?

So, you know how I said this weekend was really fun and I saw a lot of people I hadn't been in contact with for years? Yeah, it was great. I even made out with a cute boy who I've known for years and now lives in another state. And on Sunday? On Sunday I had a great day with my girls where we were all mellow and went out for a late lunch and then to see a girl movie matinee. It was all kind of perfect.

Of course, today started out seeming like my day of reckoning. When I got up, it was February cold outside. Then my work day began with this warning system on our campus calling all the parents and students and cautioning them about an unidentified male who was driving around in his car and shooting a gun. There was no other info than that and not even a hint of a recommended course of action people should take. It just so happens that I answer the toll-free lines for this particular institution and the phone was ringing off the hook with understandably spazzy, freaked-out parents and students all looking for answers that I didn't have. Nice, huh?

It turns out that the man wasn't out driving around in his car shooting. Instead, he killed his wife and four children and then drove his car into a cement structure thing and as far as anyone knows right now, died in a fiery car crash. How sad is that? Because his kids went to school in my kids' district, they had a lock-down at all the schools here. Needless to say, it was a scary and stressful way to start the week.

The story of the guy, is that he had a coke problem and had just gotten caught embezzling half a million dollars from the bank where he was vice president. It's so tragic, it makes my heart hurt. The weird thing is that we were just talking about it this weekend with some of the old townies who were here for the reunion and went to high school with him. I think the guy was my age too. Crazy.

Anyway, after work, I decided to give myself a get out of jail free card day and not do anything practical or stressful, like trying to pay bills or solve world peace or clean my house. I did stop by my friend K.'s house and talk to her and her housemate J. Then I went home and watched a biography documentary called Joe Louis: America's Hero...Betrayed. I like boxing and I love watching stuff about boxers. I thought the documentary was really well done. So, I guess what I'm trying to say, is that I ended up having a nice relaxing evening despite how it began. The end.

They Tell Me That's What Everybody Knows

I'm doing the Saturday Scavenger Hunt photo post on Sunday. Since I didn't do it at all last week, I feel pretty good about just doing it a day late. The word this week was perfect. I'm about as far from a perfectionist as possible. I'm messy and goofy and soooo not cool. I've made tons and tons of mistakes in my life and I'm okay with all of that.


I do feel like there are two areas in my life that have turned out perfectly. First off, my girls. Although, they aren't perfect either, they're the perfect children for me and I am very lucky to have them.

The second area, is my friends. Some would say that they are far from perfect. They're all quirky and funny and delightfully weird and I appreciate every single one of their imperfections.

So, that's about All I can do with that word. Now, had the word been imperfect, I would have loaded this post up with about a ton of photos of myself...Each one, goofier than the next.

I Like Your Stories, I Love Your Gun

So, the show was lots of fun last night. There were all kinds of older people in the pit and nobody broke a hip or lost their dentures or anything. Although, I did lose my phone for a very scary hour or so until I found where it was.

Not everyone could be there, so one of our friends blew-up a picture of another of our friends and glued it to a stick so we could take him around with us and abuse him all night.

Some people came in from out of town and were apparently extremely excited about being there.

Then there were people who live in town, but I never, ever see them, so then I was apparently excited that they were there.

This is my good friend B. We used to go to shows like these all the time back in the day. Now, it's very rare when we're able to hang out and see music together.

Toward the end of the night, everyone was comfortable enough to start stripping down and showing off their goodies. Woooooo hoooo!

After the rocking, we all got to spend time reconnecting. It was great to see what everyone was up to this many years later. I'm amazed at how respectable most of these guys turned out.

The Sun is Up, The Sky is Blue

Happy first day of Spring. I have so much to look forward to in the next few little whiles. I'm really excited. First of all, tomorrow is the Iowa City Punk Rock Reunion show. A bunch of people who were in hard core bands in the eighties are all coming back to play music at the Unitarian church just like they used to do. I haven't seen some of these people since I was 19 years old. I'm interested to see who shows up and I wonder if I'll even recognize half of them. Then, after that show, my friend K. and I are supposed to go to the Picador for another show. I think I will fulfill my monthly music quota in one night.

I've also been working on my Summer plans in the last few days. Right now, it looks like sometime in June, me, my daughters, my friend K. and anyone else from the Iowa City contingent will go to Chicago and meet her friend J. and my friend S. for a Cubs game and a trip to a Japanese steak house and then probably drinks after that at some fun bars in the city.

I also decided to use that tax bonus we're supposed to get to take my girls to California at the end of July. Sure, I could be responsible and use it to pay stuff off or save or some other bullshit thing, but I think I'll just go ahead and stimulate the economy by traveling. We'll stop in Denver and check things out there, then stop In Salt Lake City and see us some real live Mormons. Actually, we all know I grew up being the only non-Mormon in my neighborhood in Mesa, but my girls haven't been exposed to too many. I really want to go to the Great Salt Lake and check it out up close and personal like too.

We're kicking around the idea of stopping at Yosemite and/or Reno or Tahoe. We'll for sure stay in San Francisco for a few days and then drive up North to the Redwoods. I want to at least stay one night in the State Park where I lived back in 1985. There's an awesome swimming hole that I think the girls will really love.

Now, all I have to do is start googling and getting in contact with some old friends. It could just be the best part of the trip.

I Got a Baby's Brain and an Old Man's Heart

Kids, I don't know what it is lately, but I am B-E-A-T. Beat. (and not in that cool, younger Jack Kerouac way either) Okay, maybe I do know a little of what it is. It's kids. Young kids. Kids who are not teenagers.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like my teenagers aren't trying. They definitely are. You remember being in high school, don't you? You wanted things and you had an attitude and you were constantly trying to figure out what and how you could get away with shit. And all those dirty thoughts going through your head? Yeah, those. I know you remember those.

So, anyway. Yesterday my friend B. needed the girls to watch his kids so he could get some work done on his house. My girls like money and they love his kids, so they decided to tag team babysit. By the time I got home, the kids were still there and they were awesome, but they're younger, so they needed more attention. They are not like teenagers who prefer it if you ignore them, so they have more time to hatch plots and think up ridiculous lies in their heads in order to get away with all the shit they want to do. These kids actually wanted me to hang out with them and talk to them and watch them do stuff. Like I said, it was very tiring.

Then tonight I went to my beautiful friend S.'s house for chili and wonderful company. But there were more children running around. Which I totally love. Kids usually like me because they are more mature than I am and therefore get to feel superior. I got to mess around with Buzz Lightyear action figures and I was even asked to not only be my own action figure, but someone's apprentice. How kick-ass is that? I loved it, I had fun, but then I was very, very tired and had to come home to my teenagers who were mellow and content to quietly take photos of themselves in their rooms. Ahhhhh.

Driving Beyond - Driving Me Down the Road

Here's me and my family in the late 60's with our totally groovy VW camper.

I was tagged for a meme. Like I said, I'm hit and miss with memes, but I'm going to do this one, and just not tag other people because you all know how 70's I am and how I think people should just do their own thing, man. I'm also not going to link to Booda Baby's blog, because I'm tired and too lazy and you all are smart enough to look for the link on my sidebar, right?

Here are the rules:

1. Write your own six-word memoir.
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like.
3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post.
4. Tag five more blogs with links.
5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.

Here is my 6 word memoir: I obsessively document all my experiences.

Which should be no surprise to any of you who read my blog. Why do I do it? I guess that would be the real question right there.

Most people seem to be either thing people - those who take comfort at home with their things and aren't quite as into going out and having adventures. Or experience people - those who are happier going out and creating fun adventures without the need to hole up and play with their items as much. I seem to be more of an experience person. I also grew up with a dad and several other relatives who were photographers. Everything we did was well documented on film.

When I was younger and we moved all the time, writing and taking photos of things was a way to keep all the places straight. I've rarely gone back to any of my old neighborhoods, so it's good that I've kept journals and taken photos

Now, I'm at that time of year where I have to think about how to use my Summer vacation time. I think we're for sure going to Chicago to see a Cubs game and possibly go with and/or meet up with friends to check out the scene. Ideally, I'd like to see the Cubs play the Cards, so both my daughters would be happy, but I know those tickets are tough to come by. I've also been kicking around the idea of a roadtrip to California. I would contact my friends from here to there for cheap places to stay and then I could finally show the girls my old San Francisco and Northern California haunts. The big issue is, how much I'm willing to go into debt for it. My question to you gentle readers, is how much are you willing to go into debt for your things or experiences? (depending on which kind of person you are)

Spring's a Girl From the Streets at Night

Okay. Here's the dealio. St Patrick's Day is over and it was one for the record books. The other thing is, that my friends are the awesomest that ever lived. Here are my girls at Micky's right before our food came. The corned beef was just about perfect.

Then we went down to the Dublin Underground where I was apparently totally comfortable being my own spazzy self.

Here's a group shot of most of the fun girls who happened to be down there. I don't know when the last time all of us were in the bar at the same time.

I don't know if I've mentioned how awesome my friend D. is. She will always dance to every song with me and she knows just what to do and say, right when I need it.

As you can see, she's also smokin' hot, and that never hurts.

These next two guys were tending bar tonight and definitely need their props too.

Aw. Just look at him. Don't you want him to pour you a pint and dispense you tons and tons of shit? Because he's good for both.

I always have to get a pic of the guy who has the cajones to wear a kilt out in public. Plus, he did a hell of a job taking that group girl photo at the top of this post.

And finally. This is my newest, favoritest couple around. Oh, but it warms a girl's heart to see it.

Okay, that was my St. Pat's day. Sure, it was a little messier in person on my part, but then it always is. So, what the hell did you all do tonight?

It's the Wrong Time

So, yeah. Ahem. Um, okay. Erik broke-up with me this weekend and that's all I'm going to say about that. From now on, I'm applying the Fight Club rules to this topic and moving on. Kay?

Now, on a more positive note. Tomorrow is St Patrick's Day and it should be tons of fun. I have a really cute, short, black skirt to wear and everything. The tentative plan at this point is to meet my friends at Micky's at 6 for corned beef. After we fill our bellies full enough to absorb alcohol, we'll head down to the Dublin where I'll do my best to avoid drinking green beer. In turn, I wish all of you a green beerless St Pat's Day too.

She Can Talk to the Mangling Strangers

It's Saturday and Erik's here so I, so I don't have time to write long. Last night was nice and mellow. Mostly we hung out at K.'s house and then went down to the Dublin for a drink. I was still pretty worse for wear from the night before.

I do remember a promise from the last post that I would post some pics from Thursday night if you were all really well behaved. Since I have no way of knowing, I'll just assume were good and show you a couple of pics anyway.

Looking at the photos from that night, they were the least flattering pics I've ever seen. There are no decent ones of me, but here's one of the rest of the crew. The guy flipping you off, wandered downstairs on his first night in town and kind of took over our table. He was actually pretty amusing and then he wandered back upstairs and we never saw him again.

FMBF/DM not only allowed me to take pics of him, he actually gave me permission to put a few up on my blog. Here's him doing his eighties hair band rocker pose. It would have looked so much better, if he still had his Bon Jovi hair from high school. I do want to thank FMBF for being such a good sport since I've given him enough shit to last a lifetime in just a few short days.

It's Too Late, Baby

Okay, kids. Let me just put it to you straight. This post is guaranteed to be lame. As my friend S. said about herself in an email to me, "I put the ME in lame". Ad that's exactly what I did tonight. Yes, I had fun, but I got drunk and now it's late and I'm dumb.

I met my friends, K. and T at the Dublin along with the person formally known as Mr Dateman, but who renamed himself, FMBF (for former boyfriend- or was it FMDM for former Dateman). We had a great time and there were tons of people I knew there. T., who is always my favorite shit stirrer, had fun messing with FMBF's slight (ahem) OCD. He left the table to help K. pick out songs at the juke box, and while he was gone, T. took all the coasters he had lined up all tidy next to each other around his beer and put them all in a messy pile instead. Of course, the first thing he did when he sat back down, was pick them up and start to staighten them again. I told him what T. did and FMBF appreciated T.'s awesomeness right along with me.

I have some photos from tonight that I don't have time to put up, but if you're all real good, I may try to get them up this weekend. Now, it's time for me to go to bed. Erik is coming up this weekend, and I want to be as fresh as a daisy when he gets here tomorrow. I think at this point, it might be a bit impossible, but at least I'll try to be as perky as I can.

Night. Night.

I'm Wide Awake on Memories

So, tonight was a night for great and terrible stories. First I met the supper club people at Shakespeare's and one of the guys there was training to be an over-the-road trucker. He was telling us about this old trucker who was his trainer and the stories were not pretty at all, but so amusing. The worst part was that the old school trucker guy never wanted to stop and kept a garbage can with baggies full of his urine and feces in it and traveled around like that. Yeah, I promise I won't go into any more detail, but just know there were a whole lot of people saying, "Ew" over and over again during the telling.

Then I grabbed the Coadster and we headed to Van Allen Hall for the John Irving reading. Like many people my age, I fell in love with his work after reading The World According to Garp in high school. It was so dirty and quirky and there was so much mention of Iowa, that I wanted to live in that twisted world as long as I could. Then in 1985 when I lived in the redwoods and we had to drive all the way to Eureka to buy art supplies, music and books, I was starving for anything decent to read. My brother sent me the hard copy of The Cider House Rules for my birthday that Summer and I spent an entire weekend, lying on my favorite rock on the Eel River reading that book and pissing off my favorite river otter who really didn't want me hanging out on his turf. So, I was so excited to not only hear him read, but share it with the Coadster. She loved the movie Simon Birch when she was a kid, and was really interested in his work.

The hall was packed. So packed, in fact, that Lan Samantha Chang had to get up and tell us that we were officially a fire code violation and all had to move to a bigger lecture hall in the business building. It was kind of funny to watch so many people elbowing and running over to the new venue to get a decent seat. Once we were there Samantha Chang said that it was great to see 500 people all walking down the street for something other than a Hawkeye football game.

Irving was an excellent reader. He chose a chapter from his soon to be released novel that took place in Iowa City in 1967. Coadster has always loved reading about the 1960's, so she was really intrigued. Then toward the end of the chapter, he described the block on Iowa Avenue right where we lived until Coadster was seven. She knew every place he described. It was fun to see her get so excited about a reading. The best part came when Coadster said, "This was really awesome. We should go to some more readings together." Oh yeah, I done bred myself a little nerd girl child, just like me.

Dancing Until The Music Stops Now

See what I mean about the plethora of mosaic photos on here?

So, tonight was a nice quiet evening at home with the girls. Aside from a few phone calls, we were all home together all night. I tried to get some cleaning done since it looks like I'll be busy the rest of the week. But it wasn't all business either. Coadster and I also took time out of our busy cleaning schedule to embarrass Stinky with our double trouble total dork-out dance party. Just seeing the look of sheer horror on her face while we used the cheesiest dance moves we could think of, made the evening for me. At one point, Stinky warned me that I was going to have to shell out a lot of dough for all the therapy she'd need because of it, but I assured her, our dance party was only one of many reasons I'd be paying for a lifetime worth of therapy for her.

It was nice to have a break, because as I've mentioned the rest of the week is full, full, full. Tomorrow night, I'll do a quick run, then meet some friends at Shakespeare's for their Wednesday supper club. I'm only doing a drive-by to that, so I can pick up Coadster and head down to hear John Irving read at 8:15. I saw him speak at Frank Conroy's memorial service, but I've never been to any of his readings before.

On Thursday, the girls are going to watch their dad in his play at the University. Since they'll be gone, I'm going to meet some friends at the Dublin for drinks. I almost never go out on Thursday night, and I've had so many people tell me that it's a really fun night at the Dublin. I'll let you know if all the hype is true.

Okay, I better trot off to bed. This may be my only real shot at a full night's sleep for a bit.

Lookin' In The Stalls, No There Ain't Nobody Here

So, this week's Saturday Scavenger photo hunt word was chemistry. I couldn't think of a photo take on it that everyone else hasn't done already. So, I'll post a bunch of photos that don't have much to do with chemistry and just talk about it for a minute instead. Lately, I've been very aware of my own chemistry and how it's felt a little thrown off the last month or two. I'm trying to de-wonk myself by running outside (today was the first day in a long time I've been able to) now that it's finally safe to do that. There is nothing like endorphins to de-wonk your body chemistry. All I can say right now is, ahhhhhh.
Okay. Now I'll put up photos of bathrooms from CBGB's and The Venice Cafe in St Louis. This top one is at the Venice Cafe (you can always tell by the mosaics). These lions sit facing the toilet and can be a little disconcerting when you're trying to pee.

This is one of the stalls in a downstairs bathroom at the Venice Cafe. (again with the mosaics)

From here on out, we'll be in the women's room at CBGB's. I love that they drew a big star in front of the word "sex". Because nothing deserves a gigantic star like sex does.

This is the best graffiti I've come across in a long time. If you can't read it, it says, "Amanda Linn writes shitty dick-loving poetry". It totally made me want to ask around and find Amanda Linn to see if she'd let me read some of it.

Erik told me I had to check out the women's bathroom. (as if I wouldn't have on my own...) And he was so right. There were two toilets with a huge table in between them. I've never seen a bathroom like it.

I said to Erik that you could totally pee and play cards at the same time and he said, "Or do coke". To which, all I could reply was, "duh." It's not like I've never been in a bar before or lived through the eighties, but for whatever reason, that idea never occurred to me. Dude. I am such the country mouse visiting the city mouse sometimes.

But There's No Stoppin' a Duck and His Beat

Okay. This will be another one of those, "Churlita went to St Louis, and all she brought you back was this crappy blog post" posts.

It's mostly photos, so you should like that.

So, yeah. Erik took me out for duck and we ate some duck. Weird.

We also had shrimp and walnuts and bbq ribs and some soup.

Here's me trying my first bite of duck. For some reason, my hand looks kind of deformed. Don't worry, I don't have rheumatoid arthritis. It's just the angle of the camera, or my hand, or something.

After we ate duck, Erik took me to two of his favorite St Louis bars. One was called CBGB's (no, not the one in NY) and the other one was the most visually stimulating bar in St Louis, called The Venice Cafe. A friend of Erik's who tends bar there, does all the mosaics. They are amazing and I have tons of different photos of them. Fair warning, you will be seeing plenty of mosaics in the next few blog posts.

Erik was a little too full after dinner to drink a lot of beer at first, so he had coffee. I swear to god, he didn't ask for this cup. They just took one look at him and served his coffee in it.

Here's me at what looks like a zoo, but if you expand the pic, you'll see it's really an exhibit of Simpsons figures, apparently in their natural habitat.

Here's me drinking a bucket of some kind of cocktail whose name escapes me now. You can see by all the straws, that there were plenty of people to help me drink it down.

Oh, say, like Erik, for instance.

And here we are toward the end of the night, taking photos of ourselves Stinky style.

Stay tuned tomorrow when I show you photos of the bathrooms at these bars. You know how I like to take photos of bathrooms...