Step by step, ooh girl

When I was in about 1st or 2nd grade I was completely in love with The New Kids On The Block.  I have no idea where I even heard their music originally, it’s not like my parents were blasting the teeny bopper rock in the car or anything.  (In fact, it wasn’t until middle school that I really listened to anything other than music from the 70s and back.)  I guess when I was playing at a friend’s house I picked it up? Anyway, totally obsessed.  I had the trading cards, the comic, the videos, even a Jordan doll–he was my favorite, obviously.

I say all this because when I was browsing Awkward Family Photos I saw this photo:

Why are they feeding her?

And I thought to myself, Haha that guy in the middle looks just like whatshisface, the less famous Wahlberg. When I looked a little closer, I noticed that a.)FakeWahlberg was trying to stick things into that little girl’s mouth wtf, and b.)The sensitive looking dude behind him looked super familiar.  Then it hit me:  I am a terrible NKOTB fan, I DID NOT RECOGNIZE THEM.  I’m ashamed.  I’m also ashamed I thought Donnie Wahlberg just looked like a bad Wahlberg wannabe.  My bad, Donnie.  Keep hangin’ tough.

Embarrassing Myself.

I’ve passed out twice in my entire life.  Once when I was in middle school while I was taking a tour in Colonial Williamsburg, the second time while I was at work.  The first time wasn’t all the remarkable, aside from scaring the crap out of me.  The other time? Well…

It was my first day of work at a nice clothing store (data point: we sold eighty dollar dresses), and I was feeling pretty good about how things were going.  I was ringing up a customer while my manager supervised when I started feeling queasy.  A little light headed.  I tried to plow through when my vision started going gray around the edges.  Oh, hell, I’m about to pass out, I thought and attempted to excuse myself from the customer.  I staggered two steps away from the registers when I completely lost consciousness.  Now, in my fantasy world, what happened next looked something like this:

More like a lady-like swoon rather than passing out.

Instead, reality being the cruel mistress that she is, I looked more like this:

A fainting goat. I swear he's not dead.

Yeah.  My last conscious thought was hearing the customer sneer out, “What’s wrong with her?”  What followed is someone hauling me into the back office, a cupcake magically appearing before me and a complete stranger driving me home.  I’m still baffled as to where that cupcake came from, to be honest.  Apparently I had hit my head pretty hard when I collapsed like a bag of bricks and spent the rest of the evening paranoid I had a concussion, convinced I was going to die if I fell asleep.

Good times, good times.

Die demon family!

Awkward Family Photos. Why are you not reading this blog?

THE LOOK ON THAT KID’S FACE.

I really really want to believe in time travel.

Over at forgetomori there’s a photo taken in the 1940s.  Notice the dude in the middle who looks drastically out of place.  Yes, I realize that if you do a little digging you can figure out he’s not really dressed all the strangely for the time period (apparently everyone in the 40s didn’t wear fedoras and pinstriped suits.)  However, how massively cool would it be if the guy really was a time traveler?

-pril = ACE inhibitor

Work started for me at 6am this morning.  Granted, that means I’m out of there much, much earlier, but for the rest of the day all I want to do is snooze on the couch. Blah.

I’ve slowly started studying for the PTCB exam so I can focus on getting more experience working in a pharmacy.  I’m (hopefully) starting my pre-req classes this summer, so it’d be nice to be able to get a decent job as a pharmacy tech while I’m in class.  I’ve been out of school for over 2 years now, which means I’m a little out of the habit of studying.  It’s even rougher when I don’t have a school schedule to force me into studying and giving me deadlines.  What I’m hoping will work is getting up early and studying in the morning before my day starts.

Anyone with study tips for massive amounts of information that needs to be memorize, feel free to pass them along to me at some point.  I’ll be making flashcards and I have a few online things, but mostly I’m suspecting I’ll just be printing out a list of drugs and repeating them until it sticks. Ugh.

Confession

Sometimes I confuse Mitch Hedberg for Wesley Willis.  I have no idea why, I think maybe I was introduced to both of them at the same time.  Seriously though, their comedy couldn’t be more different.  (Actually, just the fact that one is a comedian and the other is a mentally ill musician furthers my bewilderment.)  This can make conversations about either man kind of awkward, especially when I start singing a Willis song during a Hedberg-centric conversation.

Not that I’ve ever done that.

I love Autumn!

I love it when the fall weather first hits, waking up to grey skies and breathing in crisp air.  There’s a tangible change in the air and when I pull on a sweater and hide my nose in a scarf I feel like falling in love.  Keep your summer romance, give me a boy to tug me closer by my hoodie strings and I’m seeing stars.

Here in Florida autumn has been elusive, teasing us with a day or two of cooler weather, followed by weeks of muggy heat.  Today however, it feels like it should.  To celebrate, I cooked up a big pot of chili and in a few hours I’ll settle down with a bowl full and watch Bones and Supernatural. (I love television on Thursdays.)

I don’t have a particular recipe for chili, but here’s what I did tonight:

• 1 1/2 lb ground beef
• 2 cans kidney beans
• 1 can stewed tomatoes
• 1 can tomato sauce
• chopped onion
• chili powder
• paprika
• garlic powder
• oregano
• cumin
• cocoa
• brown sugar
• beef bullion
• salt and pepper

Cook your beef, throw everything together, add some liquid if you need it, season to taste and let it cook to death. It’s awesome.

Edit: i just threw half a glass of white wine into the pot.  See, this is how I cook, totally haphazardly.  Surprisingly, it works great.

since we last saw our heroine…

Let’s talk about Halloween.  Halloween stresses me out, every single time.  I’m not someone who can come up with a creative (yet attractive, because I’m vain) costume at the last minute.  Actually, I’m not someone who can come up with a creative costume even after planning for months.  I suck at costuming.  Flat out.  All I can think of are those lame, cliched female costumes: cat, cowgirl, witch. I decided this year–after torturing my mother by whining about Halloween–that I was going to just buy a costume and look awesome.  Sounds easy, right?  I start looking and nearly have a heart attack, because who’s going to pay $50 for a Uhura Star Trek dress that isn’t even accurate? (Okay, let’s just breeze right by the fact that I was considering being a character from Star Trek, because I think no one here is surprised by my geekiness anymore.)  I take a stand on principal and refuse to buy any of the overpriced costumes.  And that’s fine, until it’s noon the day of Halloween, I have no costume and I’m in a panic.  Yep, ended up driving 45 minutes to the closest Party City and shelled out $35 to be a honey bee.  But look at me! I’m a cute honey bee.  That’s what counts, right?

AP Fall Ball 10/25

As some of you may know, I occasionally get to do promo for Atlantic Records at shows–basically put up posters, pass out stickers and fliers–and that means I end up seeing some band I normally wouldn’t even listen to. Last night I headed up to Freebird Live (which, by the way, is no where near as fantastic as the Norva.  I miss Virginia.) and got to catch the AP Fall Ball Tour.  Me And You At Six, The Secret Handshake, Set Your Goals, The Academy Is and Mayday Parade all performed.  Seriously, I’m getting old because two bands in I was ready to call it a night and go home.  I don’t know how the kids in the pit survived it.  I’ll be frank here, I had no idea Mayday Parade was so popular these days.  I’m so out of touch.

I was pretty pumped to see TAI, if only because William Beckett prances around on stage like an effeminate Mick Jagger and is generally adorable.  Set Your Goals? 5 big dudes and one teeny wee singer.  Has he even graduated from high school yet? I love it, it was so bizarre watching him sing these borderline hardcore songs. Other highlights include seeing a merch girl bawl during a Mayday Parade song and some girl stumble out of the pit wearing one shoe and her shirt ripped half off.  Seriously.

Anyway, check out some videos from the night:

Me And You At Six – Pokerface Cover

The Secret Handshake – Party In The USA Cover (Haha, Luis introed this song by calling it the gayest song ever. I heart him and his metal roots.)

Mayday Parade – Jamie All Over

drenched in vanilla twilight

when i think of you, i don’t feel so alone.