FRIDAY

I'm so happy it's Friday, what can I say?! Not much has happened in the last few weeks that is really worth writing about, but I feel so bad for not keeping a better journal! This week I managed to make it to the gym 3 times (and the week isn't over yet), I watched a few episodes of 'I Love The 80s: 3D' and 'Top Model.' Last night I was so bored that Quinn and I dusted off the old nintendo and played 'Mario Party:2.' Of course that was a blast!
Last weekend I went to see Elizabethtown with Quinn, Season and Shannon and I really liked it. Season and Shannon didn't like it, but I was kind of expecting them not to anyway. I know they aren't fans of Kirsten Dunst. The only thing that I thought could have been better was Orlando's accent in the film. I was taken out of the movie a few times because his accent seemed extremely fake. Overall, good movie. Oh yeah, and good soundtrack, too. I was very excited to hear "Don't I Hold You," by the band, Wheat. That song was on a compilation that I bought in the UK in 2000 and I loved it immediately.
I was also house/dog sitting for Roxanne last weekend, too. It was a dreary, wet and cold weekend unlike LA's usual sunny and dry weather. It made me happy though. I like those kinds of days. To celebrate Saturday's mood, Quinn and I decided to watch the stros lose while drinking at Sonny Macleans. Shannon met us there for a beer but we quickly moved on to another bar, Renee's in Santa Monica. Later that evening Justin and Aaron met us at Renee's, but we weren't there for very long because we had to take Shannon home...her and the alcohol were not mixing so well. Quinn and I went back to Sonny's with Justin and Aaron for one more beer. Here are some photos from Justin's camera from last Saturday night. I stole them from his flickr page, thanks Justin!
Justin and Aaron

Quinn and myself

Aaron and his Guinesses

I didn't do much on Sunday. I actually took a nap! I never take naps so this was huge for me. I watched some TV and hung out with Shannon most of the day. This weekend I plan to work on Riley's scrapbook that I'm making for my friend Molly. I'm sure at some point I'll end up doing something for Halloween over the weekend, but I just don't know what yet. Katie was supposed to have a party and I was excited about it, but now she has to work late and isn't having one anymore. Everyone's plans are scattered now and I've kind of lost interest in the whole thing. I don't really care what I do now. As long as it's fun and I get to hang out with my shubes! :) I was thinking about going to the Getty on Sunday, but I know my dad would probably like to go again, so I think I will wait until he gets back to LA next week and go sometime with him.
Uggh, I should get back to my work now. Hope everyone enjoys the weekend. Cheers!

Pictures

A few pictures from Texas last weekend....Shannon, Quinn, Raquel, Mackenzie, Me and Lara


With Matt making crazy eye faces

Abbey and Quinn

Shane and Quinn

With Raquel, Shannon and Quinn

Raquel Quinn and I


Quinn Shane and I


The newlyweds: Matt and Abbey


Quinn and Matt Novesky

Dreams

I had a dream last night that I was searching all over a store, something like a super-hyper-market kind of store for REESE's. Not just the normal reese's, but some new ones that are peanut butter on the outside and chocolate in the inside. I couldn't find them anywhere, but I did find these cookies that were reesey-like but shaped like animal cookies? I don't know what was going on. But I definitely gotta find these reese's with the peanut butter on the outside! Yummmmm! For anyone who loves reese's peanut butter cups, the holiday kinds are the best. I'm not sure if they make one for halloween, I dont remember. But the christmas trees at Christmas and the eggs at Easter are amazing! The chocolate is smoother and the peanut butter is creamier for some reason.
Speaking of dreams, I've been thinking about a dream I had a while back..3 or 4 years ago. It was very vivid and very detailed at the time. I wish I remembered everything about it now. It was about time travel and an elevator. Every floor represented a year's time, and not just the years of my life. There were years going back as far as time began and also years (floors) ahead into the future. The dream took place in 2001 or 2002, so I was possibly 23 at the time. I remember going to a floor, 1991. I visited the 6th grade and everything was as it was then. People in the halls at school that I walked past, I don't remember them now and didn't then, but in the dream it was as if I had really travelled back in time. The thing that was most suprising in the dream was that the things I tried to change on certain floors never changed. I mean, they would in that instance, but when I would visit a floor later, something else would occur that put everything back to it's original outcome. If I tried to change the facts, say for example, if I tried to change the death of someone I lost, I could and I did. But later when I had left that time and place and would then visit another floor, something else would happen that hadn't happened before, but the person still died...in another time and place (on another floor)...but still the same outcome, death. Anyway, it was a very cool dream, a little freaky and kind of hard to shake off after waking up, but cool.
I dream almost every night. Some people don't dream or at least they say they can't remember their dreams. I have a few nights like that but for the most part I wake up with a clear memory of what happened in my sleep. I like dreams, as long as they are not nightmares!
Now for a new direction in this entry...MUSIC! Here's what I'm excited about, what's boring me and what keeps me singing in my car lately. I'm still really into Stellastarr*'s new album, Harmonies For the Haunted. I particularily like the songs, "Lost In Time," "Stay Entertained," and "Love and Longing." The new album lacks what I think set them apart from the other 80s NY pop rockers, like Interpol, The Killers, The Bravery (basically everything on the radio today) with their self titled debut in 2003. The back-up singer/bassist, Amanda is what still sets them apart from the rest on the new album for me. Her voice "sweetens" everything. Something I think the other bands of their genre don't have. Anyway, I'm still listening and still loving them.
I am also still listening and still loving iSOLA's new album Loud Alarms. My favorites are "Backdoor Salesman," "Porch Sleeper," "Hire a Plane" and "Pocket Translator." At the moment, I must add!! I tend to have new favorites a lot! Starsailor has a new album coming out VERY soon. It's titled On The Outside. I believe it was released in the UK on Monday..though I'm not certain when it's being released in the states. I don't want to pay $39.99 for an import, which is what I'm seeing on Amazon, so I will patiently wait for this one. I'm not really digging David Gray's new release. I will admit, I have not given it much time, but of course I will try again. It's not a good sign if you have to try to listen to something though. Anyway, we will see and I will report back.
It's time for lunch now. I'm going to grab something away from desk for a change. I'm thinking of going to Panda! I have not had it in a long time...yumm, orange chicken. Peace.

The weekend

I went to Houston and Austin last weekend with Shannon and Quinn. We suprised our friends in Texas by showing up at Stubbs on Friday night, where isola and blue october played. Only a few people knew that we were coming for coordination purposes (Abbey I'm sorry for the stress I caused you!). The suprise went good though! The show was excellent....I hadn't seen an isola show since sxsw 2004. The new album is out and the band sounds great live. My favorite song is called "backdoor salesman," which I got to hear live and I was very happy with that! The show was sold out, so it was extremely crowded. We all got to hang out during Blue's set...got lots of fun pictures. We stayed with Matt and Abbey on Friday night, and then woke up and drove to Houston for the show at Meridian. We had to make a little detour first because Quinn forgot to close her tab at Stubbs. We would have gone to Houston from Austin, but we had to drive back to San Marcos to go through Luling to pick-up Quinn's cell phone that she left at the gas station the night before. She was awesome...leaving her little trail. I guess it was a good thing, because we were planning to leave earlier that day. But because we left later than planned, we were able to help the guys with their flat tires on the road. We sat on the side of the road for a few hours while they went to get a new tire and have it changed. I was supposed to go to Julia's house that night for her house-warming party, but because we were late getting into Houston and we hadn't showered or anything before the show, we didn't make it to Julia's! I was pretty bummed about not being able to make it....I was looking forward to seeing her and the new house and also visiting with the other people there that I don't get to see very often. Hopefully she is planning to come out here for Thanksgiving so I can see her! The weekend went by too fast. I got to see a lot of my friends and we had fun, as we always do, but it makes me sad to come home after a fun weekend like that. I wish everyone was closer so we could see each other more often.
Anyway, I don't have enough time right now to write about everything that happened this weekend or about anything else, as I have lots of work to do. Once I get the computer going at home (which should be at the end of this month), I will blog more from home. Hope everyone is well.

October it is

I'm not doing very well with the blogging lately. If anyone is reading, I'm sorry to have left you all without a new entry in over a week! Today is Friday, it couldn't come at a better time...this week has felt soooooooooo long. 10am, only 8 more hours to go. ;) I just got some new soundtracks in the mail yesterday and I'll be listening to those today. I got the Grey's Anatomy soundtrack - it's good. Has a Postal service song on it which was featured as the trailer song for the show. It also features Rilo Kiley, Joe Purdy, Ben Lee, Inara George, Get Set Go and 9 or 10 other artists. I got the soundtrack from the film 'Thumbsucker' too. I have not seen the movie yet, but the score was written by The Polyphonic Spree and features about 4 songs by Elliott Smith. Looking forward to listening. Also in the bundle are the scores to Flight Plan and The Greatest Game Ever Played. I did not see the greatest game...but I did see Flight Plan. It was OK, a decent thriller.
I think it would be fun to music supervise a cool tv show like Grey's Anatomy. It's not a cheesy teen show, but not as adult contemporary as ER or Desperate Housewives...and has a lot of room to place the kind of music I enjoy hearing on a TV show. I miss Felicity so much. I don't know if anyone else recognized this. I always pay attention the music in shows that I love. When Felicity aired, the show was filled with great music...ryan adams, starsailor to name a few. Because I'm such a fan of the show, and I could watch every episode a million times over, I own the seasons on DVD. Now when Disney distributed these DVDs, their music budget was much smaller, obviously. And I understand that they can't use the same songs because of that reason, but it appears as though no one cared about what an effect the music had on the show. They didn't even try to replace it with something similar or 'fitting.' I remember my reaction to certain scenes when the show originally aired and I watch them again on my DVDs now, and my reaction is NO where near what it was and the quality of the show just seems different now....bad even. I'm thinking about writng a letter to the music supervisors who were hired to do the music for the DVDs. (not that it would matter but I feel I need to do something!) I *think* it was the same supervisors who did the actual show....in which case makes it worse! Anyway, that's how I feel about that.
Quinn and I have had a lot of fun lately. We are really enjoying where we live (it's been 2 months, can you believe it?!), and we met some new friends who live in the area. It's always fun when you're meeting new people and making plans and not sitting at home, wishing you were more fun ;) We have so much to look forward to as well in the coming months...which is even more fun! Visiting old friends, hanging with new friends, going to Vegas, Thanksgiving, possibly a weekend trip to a cabin in Mammoth, Christmas, seeing family.....good times ahead.
My little sister, Ginger is in town. She got in last night and we went to dinner with my dad in Manhattan Beach. We went to Mama D's. It's an Italian restaurant close to the water and the pier. It was delicious. Thanks dad! Today they are touring Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Tonight we are going to eat on the promenade in Santa Monica, and tomorrow we are going to Laguna Beach, Palos Verdes and Newport Beach. And then she is leaving on Sunday :( Such a short and quick trip, but at least she was able to come out anyway.
Candace and Eric are buying/building a new house in Houston. Which is good news for us and for them...maybe it will get them going on starting that family I want them to start soon! :) Yes, it's all about what I want. No, I know they are newly married and have plenty of time, but I just cannot wait until they start having babies. I know they are going to be so cute! Bones, if you are reading....good luck on finding the perfect new house. Ginger told me that Eric was looking at a house in Westgate yesterday. I hope that if you like it, it's yours!
My older sister, Daphne who lives in NYC, just got a new job. She's working in production for an advertsising agency/company. Last time I talked to her, she seemed to be liking it. Congrats, Dz Nuts! Can't wait to visit. May 2006... that's the plan as of now. I know you would like it to be sooner, but I don't have any vacation time left and I don't want to come out there for only a long weekend. It's too short, especially with the days it takes to travel there..LA to NYC...is like a 9 hour day.
Well, I should get back to doing my work. Have a great weekend.