Checkit

These pictures are so fucking cool. Wow.

Plz!

So guys! My birthday is in less than 3 months, and I know that has the internet thinking, "Whoa..what should I get her?". So I want this shirt. I forgot about it until tonight when I was clicking through DinosaurComics archives and came across the comic that inspired it. Love.

Tuesday's Grey & Wednesday Too

Finally, some rain. Yesterday I turned into a lobster, but not one of the cute ones. One of the ones that are randomly striped and have shadows of the palest white possible, alternating with super-redness everywhere else. I like spring and summer rain days. It's nice and warm, but not too hot, and it really clears the air and makes the next day that much better. Also, today was Homemaker Day! Started with some puppy-sitting, some walking around in the rain, and then home for breakfast and baking.
Something I've really gotten into since I moved here is cooking; I've been trying to make at least a few meals from scratch every week instead of relying on the plethora of take-out and deliciously simple ready-to-eat options at the stores around here. Soon, my typical day consisted of bagels, pasta, and some random Indian food (or Persian, or Trinidadian, or Jamaican..). Trying to remedy this while I've got time on my hands by making a lot more food from scratch. I want to get back out to the market at Jean Talon sometime this week if I can to grab a ton of fresh vegetables, fruit and cheese. My theory is this: if it's in the fridge, and I've spent a fair amount of money on it, I'll have to eat it, right?
The grocery store across the street is kind of a shithole. Not the best selection, first of all, and definitely not quality produce. But it's convenient and I hit it up at least once every two days (I don't really go get groceries that often anymore - I pick up what I'm thinking of using for the next day or two instead. That means I've gotten to know pretty much every employee there, and I'm sure they think I'm a little nuts.) I got some bananas to use in smoothies that weren't the best, and since I had a few laying around still I decided to make some really simple banana muffins with a mocha almond crumble topping. I love to bake, but I'm not really big on *eating* the baked goods... so Ellen and her roommates sometimes get generous bags of cookies and stuff from me whenever I do.
I decided to use up the peppers, zucchini, carrots, broccoli, and celery that have been sitting in my fridge for the past few days. For lunch I made a little pizza (called my mom for her whole wheat anise pizza crust.. pretty delicious). Now I'm finishing up a super simple pasta sauce, with the rest of the aforementioned vegetables and some onions, garlic, a can of tomatoes, and some broth. Not super hungry yet, but I've made enough sauce to freeze for another day anyway. Besides, I'm a big fan of small meals often, so this should work out for a while.
I'm assuming that it's okay to chop up a bunch of fruit and freeze it in portions, right? I like making smoothies in the morning, but some days I just forget or don't do it or whatever and I figure that freezing cubed strawberries and mangoes and the like would be a more economical way of doing it. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
On a completely unrelated note, whenever I go to the pharmacy I have a look at the ibuprofen section to see if there's any extra-strength around. I could never find it anywhere in Quebec, which was a little puzzling. I mentioned that to a friend today who told me to look it up. Finally found a line on the Advil Canada website, noting that extra-strength Advil is found in blah blah blah except for in Quebec where it is behind the counter. Behind the counter! What the hell, Quebec. Advil's too dangerous to give out in 400mg doses, but Tylenol's okay? When I'm in NB next week, I'm buying 5 bottles to bring back. I'm getting sick of taking 4 caplets every 4 hours when I'm headachey and cranky. If anyone has any more information about this little quirk, let me know.

Drag The River

What do you get when you throw together some of punk's all-stars like Jon Snodgrass, Chad Price, JJ Nobody from The Nobodys? A fucking serious alt-country band. Now, I'm not a fan of the label "alt-country," because they're just an amazing band with incredibly varied roots and an interesting sound. But that's the category iTunes files it under. What can you do. I've been listening to You Can't Live This Way since I finally got the whole album a couple weeks ago.
I got introduced to this band - specifically, to this record - late last year by a new friend who's got pretty great musical taste (and by that I mean that it mirrors mine pretty nicely). He sent me over a couple tracks, and every time I went into a record story for the past 6 months or so I've looked around to see if I can find anything by them. No dice. I've got a decent collection of All and Armchair Martian (side note:whenever I type Armchair Martian I still get the Ataris' Song For A Mix Tape in my head - "there was jawbreaker and armchair martian, built to spill and the descendents") and I've always thought both bands had strong lyrical content and super catchy tunes. This record totally blew me away though. It opens with Death of the Life of the Party, and consists straight-up danceable/hang out-able/rock out-able/play over and over-able songs from start to finish. These are classic drinking songs, folks. Lyrically the album is stellar. Lines in every song stick out for me, like the first time I heard Left & Leaving (okay, so no one's as crazy as JKS, but these guys know their shit). Lizzy is my personal favorite (can't find any live videos or anything of that one, that's a last.fm link). I think I fell in love with it from the unapologetic chorus: "I'm the kind of man your mama hates, I wouldn't blame you if you did too/if you think I wrote this song for you, you'd be wrong." Makes me dance in my seat on the metro a little too.
Anyway, 200% worth checking out. Seriously. When I was looking at tickets for that Old 97s show at Maxwell's in Jersey I saw that they're playing May 17th or 18th with Joey Cape for 10 bucks. If I've got a full-time, decent paying job by then I'll probably splurge and hit up NYC for the weekend. I can't really afford it, and I'll be taking the bus for 16 hours total to see 2 bands, but really.. I'm taking a train trip for about 35 hours for a show and a weekend with some amazing friends, so that's nothing.

Punk Rock Girl

This song gets in my head every once in a while, and it's impossible to get out. A couple months ago I was trying to remember where I found this comic, and of course it is from the ever talented Mitch Clem. I read Nothing Nice To Say daily for years. I think this was the first webcomic I got into, after someone left the url on Cathy's computer during ECMAs in 2003. Anyway, enjoy. Read some NN2S archives. Or, you know, just shout anarchy.

The Good Times Are Killing Me

I met this guy at a neighborhood bar in the summer of 2003. I'd been single for.. well, probably about 2 weeks, really. My boyfriend and I had been so on and off that I honestly can't remember when we really broke up for the last time, but I know that on my birthday that year we were more or less together. I was optimistic at the time, because I was still hopelessly in love with him, but I knew that he was seeing other people and I just wasn't the person he wanted to be with anymore. I held on for as long as I could, but when I was out with a newly formed group of very eclectic friends I had the strange new experience of really being "hit on" in a bar. I'd been pretty oblivious to that whole phenomenon in the past, because I'd always been there with my boyfriend and hadn't noticed if it had happened before. But this guy was sweet, he was cute, and he was interested in a way I was really not used to. He made me feel like the most important person in the room, which was a theme for the next couple of months. Anyone I'd been seeing before that was someone from work, or a friend first, and I never had the nervousness and excitement of getting to know someone from meeting out of the blue like that. Sure, we had mutual friends in the city - he was a musician in Halifax, I was..well, I knew musicians in Halifax - but it was a delicate and meaningful couple hours of conversation, compliments, and subtle touching of the hands that made it memorable. Even though it took me about 20 minutes to remember when exactly this was, I can remember our conversations and the first things he said to me. We slept together that night, but literally just slept together, completely clothed. I think I wanted to make him mean more than just a possible one night stand. The next morning started out awkward, but he insisted on taking me to breakfast at a cafe (the first time I ever saw a bagel with hummus on it, strangely enough). He held my hand as we walked across the commons, which I also thought was an incredibly sweet gesture. I didn't hear from him for a week or so, which started me on an obsessive thought process that I'm sure is common to all of us who fall for people too quickly. I mean, I'm not someone who starts planning my wedding after a couple dates or anything, but whenever I meet someone new all I want to do is talk to that person and have that series of Firsts. We went out a few more times, mostly making dinner and drinking too much wine at his place in front of a fire in September and October when Halifax gets that damp cold for the first time. He was sweet and charming, and I was overwhelmed. At the time, I was planning on leaving in a few months to move to Ireland, so things didn't get too serious and eventually we stopped calling each other. I met someone else, that got serious (even though it shouldn't have), and I ended up staying here. A few months later, he came back to that same neighborhood bar and sat down with my boyfriend and I. After an awkward few minutes of him trying to put his arm around me and his hand on my leg under the table, my poor boyfriend got the whole explanation and I took this guy aside and explained that I was now with someone else. The expression on his face was heartbreaking. He explained that the only reason he stopped calling me was that he thought I was going to be out of the country in a few weeks and he didn't want to get to like me any more than he already did. That was the first time I really hurt someone like that; it was completely inconsiderate and selfish and I hadn't given it a thought when I started seeing someone a couple weeks later. Even though I didn't know him all that well, it was a situation that has stuck with me for years. I ran into him only a couple more (awkward) times; I think he decided to start going somewhere else. I'm not narcissistic enough to think that it was entirely because of me, but I think I may have been a factor. When things started going downhill (and finally crashed at the bottom of the proverbial hill) with the boyfriend, I called him one more time. I got his answering machine. The outgoing message was recorded by a woman who was also living there, which made me hopeful that he was then happy with someone who wouldn't just let him fall to the side.
He sent me a message on the internet (the inter-what, you say?) today. It was simple, just saying hi and that he'd noticed something I'd posted to a friend a few days ago. But it made me think about all the people that get hurt unintentionally, and how much it really fucking blows.

Oh Oh Oh

Also, I just noticed that the Old 97s are playing in Philadelphia and just outside New York in June. Considering a road trip-type excursion, depending on my work status and possible days off. They're #1 on the list of bands I desperately want to see but haven't yet. If anyone's up for a jaunt, let me know.

Inventory

First of all, this is a list that I really like. I don't think I've posted it on here before. It's Romance Minus the Schmaltz: 29 Falling-in-Love Movies We Actually Believe In. A pretty great inventory of movies like Annie Hall, Eternal Sunshine, Roman Holiday... movies that are definitely "romances" but have other little quirks that makes them accessible, appealing, and sometimes very real. I especially like how the writers explain their choices; a quote about Brokeback Mountain, for example: "...anyone who’s ever been in a long-distance relationship can identify with the feeling that the time spent with a beloved partner is portioned off from everyday life—so sacred and rare that it’s almost unreal." Wall-E made this list too, so trust me when I say it's worth checking out. I love a lot of the writing over at the AV Club; Nathan Rabin is one of my favorite things about twitter. If I lived in Chicago, my dream job would be being his intern, or just someone who could follow him around all day fanning him with palm fronds. Side note: the AV Club Taste Test column is a train wreck in the best way possible. I'm currently watching a video of Internet Eating Sensation Dave Cheng enjoying an entire chicken from a can. GROSS. But I can't look away.
The other thing I wanted to share was this cute little thing my friend Mike put up on facebook. Kind of one of those typical fill-in-the-blank things, but you have to pick one band and use their songs as your answers. He did it with Bikini Kill, or Buzzcocks, or some punk band with a B in their name. I chose the Old 97s because a)I love them, b)they have a pretty extensive catalogue, and c)their song titles are sometimes brilliant. So!
1. Are you a male or female: Singular Girl
2. Describe yourself: Victoria
3. How do you feel about yourself: Drowning in the Days
4. Describe your ex-boyfriend/girlfriend: The Fool
5. Describe your current boy/girl situation: Timebomb
6. Describe your current location: I Will Remain
7. Describe where you want to be: Barrier Reef
8. Your best friend is: My Sweet Blue-Eyed Darlin'
9. Your favorite color is: Four Leaf Clover
10. What’s the weather like: Blinding Sheets of Rain
11. If your life was a television show what would it be called? Let The Idiot Speak
12. What is life to you: Murder (Or A Heart Attack)
13. What is the best advice you have to give: Dance With Me
14. If you could change your name what would you change it to: Adelaide
15. If there was a drink named after you, it would be called: Busted Afternoon
16. Favorite time of day?: She Loves the Sunset
17. Your favorite form of transportation?: Old Familiar Steam
18. In the morning: Hands Off
19. At night: Designs on You
20. Describe your sex life: Melt Show
21. My theme song would be: The Other Shoe