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...

Rockin' My Peers and Puttin' Suckas in Fear

Here is a horseshoe for good luck. I hope you all get lucky this weekend.

So, you'd think I'd be partying up a storm tonight now that my taxes are done, but there was that nap I really needed to take when I got home from work, and some taxiing kids around town duties. Then I had to go look for my credit card at Los Portales which was the last place I used it, only to find out they didn't have it and subsequently find it under my bed. Which, I'm sure, is the best place to put all your most important, valuable items. I also washed what felt like a hundred years worth of dishes and baked frosted sugar cookies for Coadster's last show choir performance tomorrow night. Now, who the fuck has energy to party? Apparently, not me.

This weekend, however, I may just try to make up for it. I have the show choir thingy tomorrow, but then I may meet some people for a couple beers somewhere. I don't want to get too stoopid, because I'm driving to St Louis to see Erik on Saturday and coming back on Sunday. Since it's such a quick trip, I couldn't coordinate driving up there with anyone else. I'll miss T.'s company, but I've got it all set-up for lone wolf driving. I added a few more songs to my St Louis road trip playlist. How the hell I didn't have Whodini's "Freaks Come Out at Night" on there already is beyond me, but trust me, that blundering error has now been rectified - that and LL Cool J.'s "Mama Said Knock You Out". There. Now I'm ready.

The trip to St Louis will be very brief, so we'll try to squeeze as much in as possible. We're going out for duck on Saturday night (shhh. Don't tell anyone. I've never had it before) and then Erik said he'd take me to the most visually stimulating (or was that, visually pleasing?) bar in St Louis. Sunday we were talking about finally getting dim sum and watching a few episodes of The Wire before I take off back to the Northern tundra.

What's on tap for all y'all?

Let Me Tell You How It Will Be

Oh, thank Jaysus , Mary and Joseph. My federal taxes are finally done. Barring any inputting errors made by me, (and I do happen to be an expert at inputting errors) I should get my refund next Friday sometime. If I made a stupid mistake or twenty, it could be the week after that. Either way, I'll have my dough before the end of the month.

Now, I'm so, so tired and I just want to go to bed. All I want right now is to think good, happy thoughts. Just in case you were wondering, these are what my good, happy thoughts look like:

Ahhhhh.
Ahhhhh.
And ahhhhh.

I feel so much better now.

Hold Your Glass Up, Hold It In

Stinky took this photo of me before we went out for dinner tonight. She didn't use a flash, so my skin is looking a little on the red side. Maybe I can stand next to all the orange people who have been fake tanning for Spring Break and we can try to make a rainbow.

Today was better in general. I got my car back, even though it cost me money I didn't really have. I don't drive all that much, but there are kids to cart around and groceries to get, so I really need my grocery getter.

While I was tooling around picking up Stinky, I missed a call from my friend Colleen. I called her right back and she said she was in Cedar Rapids visiting her mom in the hospital. She didn't want to impose, but she really needed to get out of the city of 5 smells and not eat hospital food and maybe get drunk. She wondered if it would be possible to hang out. I told her to come down and eat dinner with me and Stinky and I would be happy to get her drunk. I'm a really good friend that way.

We zipped back from the store, and since Colleen didn't want to make decisions, Stinky was the decider and said we should go to Micky's to eat. Colleen's been going through a lot lately, and she was a little disoriented, but that just meant I had more to tease her about. We ate and since she's a junior high counselor in an inner urban school in NYC, she got out of Stinky that she did poorly in a couple of her courses. Ooops. Stinky loves Colleen so much, that she couldn't even be mad at her. I'm sure she'll resent the hell out of me when she receives her negative reinforcement, though.

In the end, Colleen was really too out of it to drink. So, we called it a night and went home.

I'm sure you'll all be thrilled to know that I started my taxes tonight. I couldn't get very far, because I needed to get on the computer and Coadster was already on writing a paper. Hopefully, I'll have all tomorrow evening to get them done. As always, wish me luck.

I did get to have a long phone conversation with Erik tonight and that was great. He's been kind of busy the last couple of days, so it was good to even be on the phone with him, not really saying anything super deep.

Blood's Thicker Than Mud

Well, today was kind of reality sandwich day. I had to take my car in before work and found out that I needed some costly break work done, AND that I wouldn't get my car back until tomorrow after work. My computer was once again full of viruses on a really busy day at work. I then ended my lovely Monday by going to the dentist and finding out I had a cavity. AWESOME!

The strange thing about it, was that I wasn't all that cranky. Since last Fall, I've been really working on trying to relax about things. And when I say things, I mean everything. I've definitely had mixed results, but when I'm in the thick of annoying stuff, I try to figure out what I'm supposed to learn from it, and then let it go. I think what I learned from today, is that I need to get going on doing my taxes, because I need the money. I've basically grounded myself until I get them done. I can go to school related activities for the girls and running, but I can't go out and play until they're done. Then I intend to really whoop it up.

Of course, while trying to do my taxes tonight, the other thing I learned was that I should have done my state taxes on-line because I never did them last year and now have to do them the old fashioned and confusing way - by using the book. I also can't find the print-out of last year's federal taxes. So, maybe the real lesson I need to keep trying to learn is to be more organized.

Okay. Now I'm going to change the subject and finally do the Saturday photo Scavenger hunt. The word this week was family. So, here are some old previously viewed family photos:

This first one was of my family when we lived in Arizona. You can spot me in almost any photo because I'm usually the messiest one in the frame. You know, the one with stuff on my face and one shoe on and one shoe off.


Here's me after my mom died and we moved to Chicago. These are my cousins, I think at Christmas because we're all wearing our best disco shirts.

And finally, this is me after I created my own family in Iowa.