Oh what I forgot to mention that I’m going to the New Kids on the Block concert on Friday? The love I have for my friends holds no bounds. Rhonda gets here on Wednesday she has a five star V.I.P ticket and I’m fifth row.  This is going to be one of those life experiences I’m sure.

I am not a fan. Not.At.All.

C.J and I were talking over email as we often do, here is an excerpt.

Me to C.J:

so umm can you believe i am going to the new kids concert! that is how much i love rhonda. holy shit i will NOT be able to stop laughing. taking 100 pairs of ear plugs. im seriously afraid that the place will smell like wet pussy from all the riled up ladies. ew gross times 900.

C.J back to me:

You are talking to a man that got swept into a Robbie Williams Concert on a wave of Estrogen. 95% of ALL un-planned births (Actually both pregnancies and births) are because of New Kids concerts. Please please please play it safe. Tape it up before you leave the flat. It’s the safest way. be it Sello, Gaffa or Duct….. tape it up before your journey.

Good thing Adam had that there vasectomy.

I have never hidden my love for John Denver.  Even as a kid when my friends would come over for lunch and we’d have Kraft Dinner feasts, I had this habit of putting on the John Denver and performing full solo air band performances with perfect lip synching and ‘dance moves’ to good ol’ Johnny D.

Over the years many people have given me a lot of John Denver CDs as ‘gag gifts’ which to me are the best because I can’t own enough John Denver. When my parents moved to Bali I came into the possession of all the piano books my mom and I used to use. I would play Today constantly.  His music is pretty easy to play and being that I already liked him I used to play a lot of John Denver on the piano.

He also sings my favourite Christmas carol Please, Daddy (don’t get drunk this Christmas) and he isn’t making light of alcoholism. John would’ve never done that. He did NOT want to see his momma cry.

I also have John Denver and the Muppets Christmas on CD and let us not forget I don’t even like Christmas AT ALL.  ‘Cept for some Christmas songs that is it the rest can kiss my ass.  I also own a doctored copy of John Denver and the Muppets Rocky Mountain High.  I guess they didn’t want parents to have to explain plane crashes and death to kids or something because the plane crash scene in which John Denver doesn’t even die in and some silly muppet crashes the plane into the lake has been taken out.

Even though I think I only remember it because I’ve been told about it so many times I did get to see him live at Canada’s Wonderland with Gordon Lightfoot when I was seriously little. I do know that some of my memories from that day are legit but I was pretty little.  Seriously sucks he died before I got to see him as an adult.  Speaking of Three Chord Gord, as a kid I LOVED Kenny Rogers and HATED Gordon Lightfoot I would whine and complain whenever my parents would put him on but I could not get enough of Lucille and Ruby Don’t Take Your Love to Town.  Now those are about the only two Kenny Rogers songs I can stand and I fucking love Gordon Lightfoot.

I’ll have to accept that I’ll never get to see Johnny D and Three Chord Gord bust up the stage together and just be happy I get to make Adam as jealous as a pig staring at another pig rolling in shit and that pig can’t reach the shit because I got to see Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and Van Morrison together at the same time.  Not on stage together at the same time though as IF their egos could have withstood that, their brains would have exploded and everyone would have been covered in musical genius brains, they couldn’t afford that.

Did you know that John Denver was one of the first artists to stand up against musical censorship?  I know, totally A.W.E.S.O.M.E.  I think it is funny that my parents never knew that till I told them but my mom always knew his real name and I always have to look it up. I just did, he was born Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr.

The moral of this post is that John Denver makes me happy like sunshine on my shoulders, and blossoms still clinging to a vine.

For a while now people on Twitter have been linking to a site called Mixwit where you can make and post your own mix tapes which was only one of my very favourite things to make as a kid.  The songs even cut off you know like when you’d press the stop or pause button too soon.  I miss those days so it is no surprise although I tried to avoid it that I’ve become addicted already to making mixed tapes.  The song selection is not as strong as I’d like it to be which has unfortunately affected the meager three tapes I have made thus far but they are of course still good and contain more artists than just Neko Case I promise.

greeper mus-ac un is a sampling of cool songs I enjoy, there are five of them.  Enjoy.

greeper mus-ac deux is a sampling from our wedding cd which is now a TAPE.  Enjoy.

greeper mus-ac trios is a mellow driving TAPE dedicated to Adam and his old 1964 Chevrolet Impala two door with a 283 C.I. V8 [whatever that even means I texted to ask him what his old car was] even though he is not a John Denver fan he says John Denver is better than Barry Manilow so he can sleep in the same bed as me. Enjoy.

I really enjoyed the book, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris but I thought that Me Talk Pretty One Day was far superior and made me laugh so hard I almost peed in my pants a couple times. His stories about his brother Paul, aka The Rooster are my favourites. From one obnoxious cursor to another he just kills me. I started reading his books because Jenn went to see Mr. Sedaris live and she was crazy excited about going and so I took a look at his stuff and I am so far glad I did.

In June I was looking at a 1001 list of books you are supposed to read before you die. I enjoy these lists, they are all over the place, of course I like seeing how many books I’ve read whether it is a list from published books claiming what you should read, or internet lists, banned lists, I basically like lists. The book Under the Skin by Michel Faber caught my eye. I have read his book The Crimson Petal and the White. Being that the novel is 896 pages long and I did not bend the spine or even crease the cover in any way shape or form it catches my eye on the shelf on a regular basis, I don’t remember much of the detail but I know it is the story of a prostitute in 19^th century London. I was in the book store one day and they had Under the Skin in trade paperback on blow out, this was years ago I’d say 2003 because the inside cover of The Crimson Petal and the White says that I read it in October 2003, I bought it knowing that because it has sort of a boring cover that I would probably never read it but wanted to own it because I had enjoyed the other book.

When I saw it on the 1001 list, the rest of the list ceased to exist for me and I grabbed it off the shelf saved the list to my documents and checked to see where I was in my current book to determine how long it would be before I could start it. If I could read more than one book at a time I would. The book I was reading at that time was The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger. [The Catcher in the Rye being a perfectly fine book by all standards in my opinion but finds itself on the banned list]

The cover of Under the Skin displays a quote review from The Wall Street Journal which claims it to be “Original and unsettling… an ANIMAL FARM for the new century.” Having also read Animal Farm, by George Orwell for the first time this year, it was my first read of 2008 actually; I found the rather extreme quote intriguing.

To read this book I had to deviate from my own reading list but I was willing to do it because I buy too many books to stick to only one list. I have reading lists and books I want to buy lists ALL over the place. In fact, something I really enjoy is flipping back through old journals and day planners where I always come across abandoned lists and survey them with nerdy excitement seeing what I ended up getting and reading and what can be moved to the new lists and what stays abandoned.

Under the Skin turned out to be an extremely engrossing book but for only 311 pages it took me ages to finish. It was one of those books that while I had it in hand with my eyes firmly on the page I could not put it down but once I found a way to put it down I had trouble picking it back up again. Each time. I am glad I read it, I talked to Adam about it a lot while reading it and explained the whole story to him, whether it should be on the 1001 list I don’t really care, I don’t put much stock in the lists other than to grab the odd book off them and see if I have read anything notable. In regards to its having been compared to Animal Farm, I can see how it is relatable but think it’s a stretch. The book does still have me thinking though, it was pretty good.

I’d have to say my favourite book so far this year has been Tori Amos Piece by Piece by Tori Amos and Anne Powers. I started listening to her music in 1994 my first introduction to her was her second album Under the Pink; I now own her complete library. I have had tickets to see her live twice but only made it to the concert once. The book was released in January 2005 to coincide with the album The Beekeeper. The Beekeeper is a fantastic album and in reading the book Piece by Piece I can now experience the album in a whole new way and do, I haven’t stopped listening to it again since I read the book. It lets you dive pretty deep into her life. It lets you peek into her thought process when she is writing songs and you find yourself on a whirlwind tour through the album and through conversations she has with music journalist Anne Powers, an intimate and what feels like a pretty complete portrait of her life is presented. I ate it up and love her even more now.

I also read Dry by Augusten Burroughs which I enjoyed, although it is sad and centers on his addictions. It made me want to get off the pot for about five minutes, but that would make my shrink too happy and we can’t have that now can we. I personally liked Running with Scissors a lot more. And I also read The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella, I normally reserve her books for after I finish a heavy non-fiction read because I consider her to be fluff but for a fluff writer she is really good and I own all of her books and have read all but one. I don’t read what I consider to be fluff very often but when I do I am extremely picky about it.

I guess it has turned into a bit of a vacation, but I love blogging I don’t think I will ever stop for good to be honest. I can’t wait till there are Granny bloggers.

I’m still reading blogs I’m just reading them off of Twitter links or through Facebook, I have not been able to face my iGoogle page because I will have to deal with my feed. It is too overwhelming for me. I think I will have Adam sign in and mark everything as READ and start over. That is what I normally do when it becomes overwhelming but I do it myself, this is the most backed up I’ve ever let it get.

You know what totally sucks about not signing into your feed though? I have no idea what is going on. Twitter although fast, does not contain very many of the people that I talk to on a regular basis in real life and Facebook which does hold a lot of people I talk to on a very regular basis is set up in such a way that if you don’t sign in at the exact right moment you don’t find out till the 23^rd that a RAD ASS girlfriend had her baby on the 21^st. Ok, so the baby was a wee bit early but had I have been signed into my iGoogle page I’d have known, damn skippy, right when she popped.

I find that I’m constantly sending friendly HEY HOW IS IT GOING? emails to people only to go to their blogs AFTER and find out everything sucks. Great friend Corinna, seriously.

I added a nifty little ‘Books Read in 2008′ thingy to my sidebar. I like it; it encourages me to make my minimum reading quota for the year which I am three behind on at present.

I took my blog roll down, NOTHING PERSONAL!!! You are all still on my feed and then some [just because you weren’t linked doesn’t mean you aren’t on my feed] and I promise I will catch up on it. I meant it when I said I was taking it back old school, I have not once checked my stats the couple times I have posted, not even once, I have not been on Technorati even once and don’t plan to head back, I’m finding I don’t miss checking either. It was a compulsive urge I had to make a conscious effort to stop doing.

My allergies are so bad this year that they are keeping me even more in doors than they normally do re: we golf, but we have no money this year anyway so the allergies are coming in handy for truthful excuses as to why I can’t be places. But really I know I’ve had a headache since 1994 I can DEAL, sometimes I just don’t want to.

DEAR ALLERGY MEDICATION SPRAY MAKERS: if you are going to charge me forty + dollars for a bottle that hardly lasts a month can you maybe make it with a sprayer thing that works and doesn’t clog ALL THE TIME and refuse to pick up the last four sprays that’d be awesome I would really appreciate my moneys worth in nose bleeds please and thank you.

While indoors if I’m not reading I am spending a lot of time listening to Bobby Darin, I AM A FULL ON BOBBY DARIN ADDICT now to the point I can even tell the difference between him and Frank Sinatra. At this EXACT moment, Country House, Blur is playing though. That Bobby Darin song If a Man Answers makes me dance a jig that has me busting out the mashed pa-ta-to and everything in between.

I am starting to feel a lot better about my body, I’m eating more, have more energy, feel some motivation to get out and I have been! And I’ve been spoiling myself I got my hair cut and my eyelashes tinted. I used to get them tinted in high school and in my super early twenties but yet never got them tinted when we got married, who knows.

Last week things started to have a feeling of normalcy around here. FEELS like I’m back to my regular old depressed self. She’s cool, majority of the people I know can handle me in this state. It is no wonder that Tori Amos and her music always bring me so much solace during shit times, after I finish reading The Last Days of Socrates, Plato I am going to read Tori Amos Piece by Piece, Tori Amos and Ann Powers. I picked up a hard cover on blow out for five dollars. I can’t even tell you how happy finding hard cover books I want for five dollars in perfect shape makes me. And it is still an early enough printing that the book itself is still grooved like honeycomb.

I went out on Thursday for a friend’s birthday and I bowled! No photos though, Adam’s pictures thankfully did not turn out. Thank you very much to my Bowl for Big Brothers sponsors: readers and friends of Gus Greeper put me in second place behind Tod Maffin for most amount raised, you all helped me raise $296.00 respectfully and I greatly appreciate it!

We had to leave said birthday celebrations early because my energy level was beyond low and although dinner was awesome it wasn’t enough to keep me energized very long and also with all the great people to talk with I faded out pretty fast. At dinner it was OFFICIALLY decided that I am no longer allowed at any parties without a sippy cup because I am a Hand Talker Extraordinaire aka spilly drinker. This came about only after Kimli had already spilled a full glass of water onto Adam’s crotch [hehe that was so funny] and my cat like reflexes had caught at least four or five ‘almost spills’ from my flailing talker hands, hence past parties came up where really I haven’t necessarily spilt anything, but I did almost break or did break my toe, so we came to a general consensus. I want an extremely childish one with a neck strap on it etc. It will debut at Netchick’s House Warming. Hopefully I will have gained some weight back by then and not hate cameras.

My therapist mentioned on Friday that he didn’t think I was any smaller than I had been back in 2003 when I started to see him, I was a serious wreck back then, so I had to explain to him that yes he was right it was simply the lack of muscle mass that was making it so obvious because in 2003 I was still in stellar shape.

I have taken my nerd-dum to new heights and am now sporting FLARE on my purse. This is a very out of the box thing for me to do so we will see how long it lasts. I do enjoy the extra feelings of nerdiness it gives me though.

Last week was also a killer week for mail and I’m going to show it off!

Jennie Roth sent me these seriously kick ass slippers. I’m going to hang them above my makeshift monkey making area, these mailed before I had my not so fun break down and therefore arrived just in time to help cheer me up! Thanks again Jennie me lovez them.

I normally do not post any of my correspondence because there are many many people I have met online not to mention my ‘in person’ friends - I LOVE TO SEND AND RECEIVE MAIL - I send mail to and they send me mail. This card was too cute not to post to my flickr because it made my day and made me laugh laugh laugh and then laugh some more.

And I was also in complete shock when the post woman left a package at my door which I opened to find this fantastic painting of myself to myself from the seriously awesome Tiana aka Sassy Red Head, the original photo is here.

My friends and their thoughtfulness never ever cease to amaze me. Thanks again so much!

Last week was a seriously huge week for Adam and me. We were both completely absorbed in ourselves, I a bit too much.

We had the absolute pleasure of selling our very first Sock Monkey to Phaedra, the ‘official’ site where they will be available is not finished yet, just email us through the contact page if you want details on obtaining one. We have now sold two monkeys.

Phaedra’s Monkey who she has named Bobby has already been out on the town ripping it up. Here he is hanging out with Marc Emery. Oh, I know one of OUR Monkeys is hanging with Mr. Emery, CRAZY!!!. ROCK ON BOBBY!! The Monkeys we make for people never cease to make us proud.

Photo © Phaedra on Flickr

Looks like Bobby will be joining us bowling as well, and the Bollwitt’s [R and J] have a Monkey and we have the original Dr. Vegas so who knows what sort of monkey business will take place. Naked bowling as per Keira’s comment and Monkeys? I’d say sponsor us or I mean me. [Please]

My Parents also dropped the HUGE news on us that they are moving to Asia, Bali to be exact. Everything is happening extremely fast right now. They put their house on the market last week and it is sold already. Adam and I are currently in negotiations with them over what we can have, buy, lease, and/or ship of theirs. Right now we are very concentrated on the Yamaha piano that I played growing up and some other stuff. It’ll be interesting I don’t think we can fit the piano in here Adam says we can and he wants it really really bad. I think our land lord is going to kill us but oh well we only like her 50% of the time anyway.

The kicker the hugest news of all is that my parents are I kid you not, flying us out once a year. Did I mention they were moving to Bali? They are having a house built for retirement and of course once the insanity of knowing we get to go to BALI ONCE A YEAR wears off [if it does] I wonder what phases I’m going to go through with this? I’ve already mentioned to my shrink that I feel like I am losing my ‘Northern Roots’. He said that is normal but it is just starting to bother me. There was a big deciding factor in their decision to go so far away that did consider us, but I’m choosing to keep it private at this time.

That news combined with the sock monkeys starting to sell has us both really excited and really busy. The possibilities feel endless right now.

I have never been a fan of Memes or tagging people to do them or being tagged but I have a hard time resisting the book and music ones.

Jerk with a camera [JWC] never tagged me but it is the irresistible music-ness of it that locked me in. For the Meme I am to list my top five favourite musical artists and then list my top five favourite songs from each one. Mentioned just recently in this post keeping the same top five list of anything for more than a few hours, days, weeks if I’m lucky is hard for me. If I was ever faced with a REAL LIFE TOP FIVE DECISION BIG BROTHER SAYS YOU MUST CHOOSE. I’d be fooked.

The first four in NO particular order are SET IN STONE. The songs not so much but I’ll do my best to pick my favs or most listened to. The fifth artist I am finding near impossible to decide on.

NEKO CASE

Runnin’ Out of Fools [Blacklisted, 2002]
Margaret vs. Pauline [Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, 2006]
Favorite [The Tigers Have Spoken, 2004]
We’ve Never Met [Furnace Room Lullaby, 2000]
Set Out Running [Furnace Room Lullaby, 2000]

Tool

The Pot [10,000 Days, 2006]
Eulogy [Aenima, 1996]
Parabola [Lateralus 2001]
Aenima [Aenima, 1996]
Intolerance [Undertow, 1993]

Tori Amos

Putting The Damage On [Boys for Pele, 1996]
Glory of the 80’s [To Venus and Back, 1999]
Taxi Ride [Scarlet’s Walk, 2002]
Cruel [From The Choirgirl Hotel, 1998]
Crucify [Little Earthquakes, 1991]

John Denver

Matthew
Rockey Mountain High
Annie’s Song
Take Me Home Country Roads
Some Days Are Diamonds (some days are stones)

This last one is SO HARD FOR ME I think I am going to keep with the trend of Artists I have seen live and pick:

The Dixie Chicks

Not Ready to Make Nice [Taking The Long Way, 2006]
Everybody Knows [Taking The Long Way, 2006]
Cowboy Take Me Away [Fly, 1999]
Travelin’ Soldier [Home, 2002]
Hello Mr. Heartache [Fly, 1999]

Last night Adam and I were treated by the Bollwitts, Rebecca and John were supposed to attend the Tori Amos concert at The Orpheum but due to Rebecca’s lovely sister celebrating her dirty thirty birthday they were unable to attend.

Happy Birthday Jenny!

Somehow the tickets ended up in our hands and excitement on my part does not even cut it. I hardly had time to let it sink in that we were going and we were out the door. Once, back in 1997 I had tickets to one of her concerts here and ended up going up North to see my parents instead; they had just moved to Prince George that must have had something to do with why I didn’t go and didn’t even sell the tickets, it is one of those memories that I hated because I just never thought I’d get to see her. [as known my headaches make me very picky with my concert choices]

Did I have a headache last night? YES. Did I care? NO. Do I have an after concert headache today? YES. Do I care? NO.

For years I have had to listen to other people’s stories of Tori and her piano bench and regurgitate it in many music conversations whilst admitting I had never really seen her live. That was hadn’t seen her live until last night.

I’d actually never been to a concert with a costume change. Adam said Paula Abdul changed outfits after every two songs. He saw her with Color Me Badd, it was his first concert he went with both his sisters, the Spellbound tour.

Don’t be jealous.

Tori puts on a performance that is so much more than you envision, so much more than you expect even though expectation on anything is silly. I could have sat there and listened to her piano playing alone, the fantastic lyrics and distinct and angelic voice is a bonus, throw in her stage performance, watching her play a piano and a keyboard at the same time, and you’ve got a concert to remember. It was worth the wait, thanks again, Mr. and Mrs. Bollwitt.

I know there are better photos on my phone but I have no idea how to get them off and emailing them to myself is not working. I think I need a memory card or something I am so technology illiterate I almost feel not nerdy enough and it hurts sometimes.

Because my back was out over the weekend and I wasn’t blogging there were two things of note that I did not get to make mention of, Rebecca aka Miss604 celebrated her four year blogging anniversary and changed her blog design and it looks all new and fresh. Congratulations Rebecca, I look forward to many more years of not only your blogging but continuing to get to know yourself and John, it has been a pleasure thus far.

On Sunday, Blogger Buddy and girlfriend Keira whom I met through Rebecca, celebrated a birthday and she is a pretty rad girl that Keira-Anne so I thought I’d mention it and wish her a Happy Belated Birthday!

Yesterday a trade was also completed, an over the border trade with an American, named Jennie Roth, I met her at Johnny America’s birthday party, although we weren’t able to stay long that night and it sucked because cool new people like Jennie were there. We exchanged a toque for a sock monkey pillow, because she saw it and thought of me, YES that is right a SOCK MONKEY PILLOW, check it, some people are so thoughtful it kills me.

Ps. Miss604 is having a Blogiversary Contest:

BLOG/POST about Miss604.com and you could WIN: TWO tickets to see the Vancouver Giants in action and TWO full-day passes (including rental) for Mount Seymour this season.

More details at Miss604.com. Having won her last contest I am staying out of this one but maybe I will see if Adam wants to enter.

When I was a kid and we lived in Smithers we only had two TV channels and so somehow I talked my parents into getting me a Nintendo. Until I moved out to Vancouver at nineteen I hadn’t upgraded, I only ever owned Mario one and three and I had Duck Hunt. Duck Hunt ruled that gun was so kickass. My girlfriend, Rhonda, who lived in Kitimat at the time had upgraded her Nintendo so I would play hers. It is rather surprising how much we got to see each other when I was still in Smithers, it is considerably further from Terrace where we ended up moving. Terrace and Kitimat are around 65km apart so once I was sixteen and had my license, until Rhonda graduated and moved away for college we saw one another almost every weekend or the memories are so good it feels that way.

If memory serves I bought a Playstation when I was twenty-one. I always LOVED Oddworld and had both games. Then in 2002 [at twenty-five] with my Christmas bonus I bought a PS2. I really had no choice. At the time I was friends with a group of four plus guys hanging out in a ‘guy’ apartment doing nothing but drinking, smoking pot and kicking the shit out of each other on Virtua Fighter [for example] and I was the only girl gamer so it was hold your own or get the fuck out and I of course held my own and decided it was high time I upgraded my own gaming hardware. It was a good investment anyway because this also gave me a DVD player.

*free tip for the single ladies*

Even if you hate gaming buy a PS2 they are ridiculously cheap now because the PS3 and new Xbox whatever is out and it will get you a man. Guys would go mental when they would see I had a playstation before I met Adam but also including Adam. I used to constantly joke that I had to hide the thing, it was almost as bad as guys trying to get in my pants. Guys like girls who have gaming systems. Accept it.

And so one day I’m talking to my buddy on IM and he is dating this rad girl and he says, he says AND SHE EVEN HAS AN XBOX. HA! I responded with: That is PROOF guys would have TOTALLY said that about me. I know they did I didn’t really need the proof but it is more cool that through meeting my buddies girlfriend I have now gained a new gaming girlfriend as well which brings me up to THREE girlfriends that game. Rhonda, Iris Eggwhites and Spockette.

Guitar Hero Three - Legends of Rock did NOT come out last Sunday as scheduled and has been pushed back to THIS Sunday. Ok, I seriously thought Adam was going to cry when it didn’t come out last weekend. If it is not in our hands THIS SUNDAY I can see some major flipping out happening. BUT wait didn’t you say THIS was Guitar Hero Three? When my friends ask me that I explain it in these terms: You know how after Sarah McLachlan released Fumbling Towards Ecstasy she started to release albums like Rarities, B-Sides & Other Shit Stuff in between pretty much every full length album release, almost like she is insecure and afraid her listeners won’t be there after her breaks which pisses me off because I will always love her and still bought all those in between albums, that is what Guitar Hero is doing. The Encore 80’s game is SHIT. If I was not ADDICTED to the point of needing an intervention to GH 1 and 2 because I am so close to finishing Expert level on both games we’d have gone back to Tiger Woods PGA 2007 till GH 3 came out.

So, with all that said, Rhonda gets here in a few hours, she normally brings games for the PS2, [she owns more than one gaming system] we’ll be going to Walmart as I have been letting EVERYTHING run out because Rhonda is a Walmart addict and I don’t know we just go to Walmart and we make crafts - must be the years and years in Scouts or some shit but we ALWAYS do crafts. Anyone new here can check out other visits with Rhonda here, here and here and this post has us as teens so we look SUPER hot.