Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Good morning!
It's a beautiful sunny freakin COLD morning....I love it! This is what winter is all about for me. I'm enojying some hot milschkaffe and some pumpernickel with cream cheese and lingonberry jam. And some Blixa. The only thing that could make it better is if my toes weren't freezing. It's times like these when those radiant floor ads in This Old House really speak to me. There are many, many, many home improvements on the list before something like that, though.
So today is going to be a serious TCB day. I am going to mail my sister's Christmas presents, for example. I was all set to do it on Saturday and then I realized that I was out of packing tape. It's always something. Today though, I've got all the parts and a box that fits and goshdarnit, I'm DOING IT! If it warms up a little I might also visit the office supply store for some printer paper and file folders. I am really so close to getting my office in a fully functional state...but I just never take those few hours to finish up. Perhaps today. I also need to figure out my menu for March 8th, take care of some catering things, and the ole laundry/dishes. But I am happy to report that there really are only a few pots to wash, and maybe two loads of laundry. Lots to put away, though. I feel good about my chances of accomplishing what I set out to do today.
Mentally, I'm rather fraught. I may have mentioned casually that some friends from Boston are putting out a real vinyl record album by my old band, Dead at 24. The record part is done...it sounds incredible. They remastered the cassette tape that we recorded back in the day and added some live tracks and studio outtakes cobbled together from various cassette tapes that we all had been stashing over the years. The artwork is being worked out now, and I sent a huge packet of pictures and clippings and press stuff in for a lyric zine to be included in the package. I think it's going to be great, and I'm really looking forward to it.
Of course, this means that we are "reuniting" for some record release shows. We'll be traveling up to Boston on easter weekend, and we'll play here in Pittsburgh the weekend after. We're going to try to do some shows in NYC and Erie and Philly too.
It's all coming together, and there is even a very very very slim chance that I can convince my favorite ever Pittsburgh band to reunite for the show too. Back in the day we had a pact that if one of our bands reunited the other would too. I'm not holding my breath, but I'm not ruling it out either. I sent them all an email last night employing the slightest of feminine whiles. Heh.
Hopefully we will be getting together this weekend for a practice. I am nervous as hell about this, and this is where I have to face the fact that nostalgia is a dangerous game. My history with these people is so convoluted. I have become a COMPLETELY different person in the past 10 or so years....a person I like a whole lot better. I have had new, better, separate relationships with all the involved parties over the years...relationships which are a good deal healthier and less fraught with anxiety and bitterness. The whole raison d'etre of Dead at 24 was this complicated stew of desire, jealousy, rage, denial, blindness, codependency....it makes me a little dizzy just thinking about it. Reading Slash's autobiography isn't really helping, either. It just brings into sharper focus the fact that I am intentionally putting myself into a situation where I have to revisit a whole lot of stuff that I have only recently really gotten over. It may very well make for some great music (it probably will) but it will also probably bring up a whole unhealthy set of behaviors and patterns of interaction that I would just as soon leave in the past. Already, in email exchanges between the members of the band, the old patterns are surfacing and having the same old effect on me. Argh.
So, I'm hoping that I can do part of what I used to do (bang it all out with unfettered abandon) and avoid other parts (smoking 2 packs a day and drinking half a bottle of gin a night and snorting pharmaceutical cocktails) in my effort to cope. I don't think there is much chance that we can just avoid it all and act like the adults we've become. That's probably asking too much.
So, wish me luck. I'm equal parts apprehensive and excited. Hopeful that I can just lay it on the line and let them know what I will and will not put up with. I am definitely a lot more self confident than I was back then, and less likely to take bullshit. SO there's that.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Admission: the only nominated movie I saw was Milk. I plan to see Frost/Nixon and the Wrestler, and the more I see clips of it, the Reader. Kate's acceptance speeches get on my last nerve, however. I kinda wanted to see Slumdog Millionaire, but the more I see clips from that (and the more I see 40 children gathered on the stage) the less I am really interested.
Anyhow, I am SO GLAD that Sean Penn won! He did an amazing job in Milk. And I'm glad he made political statements. F the haterz. I thought the show was beautiful and I really loved the way they had the old winners come out to introduce the nominees. Hugh Jackman was amazing. I am totally in love with him, not just because he is Wolverine.
Well done, Academy. Way to show up the Grammys bigtime.
In other news, I've been working alot of long days and my brain tends to be frizzled when I get home. I've got to switch it into overdrive this week though because I have to get some catering stuff underway and I have to plan the menu for the March 8theme brunch celebrating women chefs and cookbook authors. I'm very excited for it, but I need to start the process of narrowing it down. There are a hella lot of women cookbook authors these days, and I don't want to take the easy celebrity chef route. I want to dig up some of the more hidden gems. Of course, the celebrity chefs in the vegan and vegetarian world are different from the Food Network celebrities. But I still might put a Nigella recipe in there, just cuz she's hot.
Today we had a very busy successful brunch where all my specials sold out by 2pm. Yowza! It's a good feeling, and especially good when people go out of their way to tell me how much they liked what I made. Makes all the lower back pain worth it.
I managed to maintain a good mood today with the help of my new Slash t shirt I got at Hot Topic at the Mall. Yep, that's me, going to the Guitar Hero wall of Hot Topic to pick out a Slash T shirt to wear to work. It is a wicked cool tshirt though. They only had super lame guns and roses tshirts, so I think I'll just order one online. Heehee.
I have lots to write about concerning nostalgia but it's late and I need to get some sleep. Hopefully I can tackle it tomorrow.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Hey there--
Sorry. I've been very lax.
Some pictures from the Cleveland trip are available at Flickr. We had such a good time! It was hard to leave, but there was that Superbowl.
We had such a good time watching that Superbowl too, and running out into the street afterward. And then I had such a good time at that Superbowl parade, where I actually got a pretty good picture of Troy Polamalu's face (and a really good one of the back of his head.) These are on Flickr too. I also got myself a Luv Ya Black and Gold giant button because it's the most yinzer thing ever, and I got some turrible tahls for rebby and jilly. I still am not really able to make the leap to tahl waving. I respect the institution, but it's not my style. I'm more of a knuckle biting football watcher.
So besides the Cleveland and the football, it's been work work work. Business has been booming in vegetarian land, strangely enough. I've settled into a three-four ten hour day week, and it suits me just fine. It leaves me two days in the middle of the week to have lunch with Jennie at Uncle Sams and buy some new haircolor and Slash's autobiography. Dude---I'm like three pages in and I am so in love with Slash right now. One of the first things he mentions is how Sylvester game him a pet rat when he was a little kid. Coupled with the fact that last night I was trolling youtube for Slash stuff and came across the PSA he and his wife Perla did against Prop 8----Slash is all down with the gays! And for being a (now ex) drunken heroin addict, he is super well spoken. Plus----the ultimate poufy hair tophat leather pants man. Good lord. All of G'n'R were SO PRETTY back in the day---even Axl in his special way. After I finish writing this I am going to go put color on my hair and read the Slash book and have a "spa day". It's the best thing to do in this miserable rainy weather.
Later on I need to whip up a nice dinner and also spend a little more time on getting the office together. It's SO CLOSE, really....but there's just so much paper. Everywhere. Sigh.
I'm gonna try to get back in a regular writing habit. I make no promises, but I vow to give it my best effort. That's all you can ask really.