there are two things I find amusing about this.
1. LOL, I have a date to a wedding
2. one of my best friends, whom I spent 5 years dancing my ass off with at britpop clubs, is getting married. I’m supposed to pick ONE SONG that will get me out on the dance floor. this was the first one that popped into my head. if it doesn’t get played, I’m taking back whatever your gift is, dude.
Hahaha seriously, how to choose just ONE song?? Nicely done, though!
Only 62 more days!! :D :D :D
Tuesday, January 24, 2012.
Sunset over Downtown Los Angeles. Absolutely breathtaking.
It’s going to be 75 degrees and sunny today.
I’m never leaving LA, but if for some reason I get down on this place and start contemplating a move, I can refer back to this as a reminder of how stupid it would be to leave.
April: WHO is that woman?
April: like, WHY is she qualified to TAKE OVER stuff??
April: i’m serious
April: what’s her BACKGROUND?
Millie: HAHAHAHAHAHA
Millie: did she get a degree in Fixing Businesses?
April: that’s what i’m saying!
April: every time i see a commercial for that i wonder
April: because you know what? i can march up in some business and yell at people. i can do that.
April: because i saw a commercial the other night, and she’s expanded?
April: like she’s not just taking over salons now?
Millie: right. she’s doing like gas stations and shit now
April: hahaha gas stations
Millie: HAHAHAHA i just laughed at the thought of that
April: but from all the commercials i see, it really just looks like her YELLING AT PEOPLE
April: like that’s the show
April: her coming in and just going, “GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER”
Millie: her walking into a gas station and telling some guy GIVE ME YOUR KEYS, I’M TAKING OVER
April: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
April: “this place is a mess”
April: and then, like, painting it neon or whatever
April: and putting couches in
Millie: “you’ve got these slim jims next to these garfield zippos here. why.”
April: HAHAHAHAHA and being SUPER ANGRY about it
Millie: i can’t stop laughing at the thought of her taking over a gas station
Millie: “putting couches in”
April: “what are your customers supposed to think when the rolling hot dog rotator cuff things are right next to the slurpee machine? it’s mixing cold and hot and it’s unprofessional.”
Millie: “you’ve got customers coming in and they haven’t been offered a frozen burrito. what kind of customer service is that?
April: hahahahahahahahaha
April: “i don’t see a give-a-penny, take-a-penny dish here! you call yourself a manager?”
Millie: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Millie: i’m crying!
April: hahahaha me too
April: just the idea of her mean ass screaming at people at a gas station
Millie: and like this 75-year-old man is just going, “uh, i guess he don’t know how to manage”
April: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
April: and the customers coming in and being like, “i just need some gas?”
Millie: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
April: like they walk in and it’s all neon with techno music playing
Millie: COUCHES
Millie: i can’t get over that shit
Millie: it’s all fake mod ikea looking
April: totally
April: and then people like my dad come in like, “i just need gas for my truck? and some smokes?”
Millie: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Millie: those are their “clients”
Millie: “i’ve canceled all your appointments for the week”
April: HAHAHAHHAHAHA
New year’s eve I saw the Kings from the fourth row center ice behind Gene Simmons and his family. Then we went dancing at La Cita and rang in 2012 with back-to-back-to-back Smiths songs. Then Lindsey and I both got sick and we took a sick day together and got hopped up on codeine-enhanced cough syrup and watched most of season two of The League.
2012 has been kind of weird so far.
Lindz and I played too much Xbox and it made my eyes tired so I wore my glasses out. This is Jeric posing for next year’s Christmas card. I am pretty drunk at this point and going up and hugging everyone and telling them I love them.
Friend’s gift exchange Christmas night at the Roost. It was out of control. So many people and so many presents. Wrapping paper flying everywhere and everyone hollering. Total chaos. But it was also so much fun.
After Brett’s we drove down the street to Monique’s. Her sister and 7-year-old cousin Aaron were starting to make a gingerbread village. They made the “bakery” in the back and I made the “gable house” and that was it. What else do you even need?
My favorite part of the night was when Aaron started giving everyone nicknames based on what he thought they looked like. Karl looked like a “Larry the Cable Guy”. Brett looked like a Cornelius. I looked like a regular Larry, which actually is kind of right. At another point I became Michael Jordan AND Michael Jackson and Monique became Jennifer Lopez and Karl became George Lopez. Kids are like tiny hilarious drunk people.
Our Christmas morning tradition. Lindz heats up some pumpkin bread and Lil’ Smokies/pigs in a blanket and we divide up the presents. Not shown is the crackling TV fireplace On Demand and Christmas music.
My coffee mug is Daniel drinking from a mug. I love it.
I got Lindz an Xbox Kinect and a dancing game and we played it until we got sweaty and tired. I’m still a little sore today.
I got awesome practical things like an electric kettle and fancy house shoes. I also got a new Slanket. This time a “Siamese” Slanket that is about 2 football fields long so we can both be warm and cozy when we’re snuggling on the sofa. We now have his and hers Slankets and now this one we can share.
Christmas Eve at Brett’s parent’s. Last year was the first year I got my very own cinnamon roll candy candy cane from his mom. It is… how do you say? Ah yes. THE BEST. I’d been thinking and dreaming about it all year. This one was too big for the tin so I figured I’d just chomp off the end a little. MADE IT WORK.
Thirty-one lines on turning thirty-one:
I turned twenty-one 10 years ago!
TEN. YEARS. Where do the days go?
I have to say though, the last 10 years have been amazing.
I like how turning 21 kick started the party-phase of my life and now at 31 I’m getting married which closes that chapter.
A wise man once said “every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end”
Everything “older people” used to say came true.
Time does start speeding up.
Your metabolism starts slowing down.
Dinner and a movie and getting into pajamas at 9pm on a weekend night is the best.
It’s funny now, going out with friends and having everyone start yawning and getting sleepy at 10pm.
I love it, though.
Game nights are fun!
But going out dancing and reliving your glory years can be fun, too.
In moderation.
I love that most of my best friends are all paired off and living cute lives together with houses and dogs.
Can’t believe I’m the first of this inner circle to get married though.
I have to believe that the dominoes are going to start falling next year.
But I’ve been saying that for a couple of years now.
(Seriously guys, if you need advice on getting engaged, holler. It’s not that scary, I promise.)
I really can’t wait to be married.
Our rings are ready to be picked up and I’m seriously bummed that I can’t wear mine for another 3 months. (102 days to be precise.)
I really can’t find anything to complain about.
Life is great.
I get to go home and sleep next to the most amazing woman who does incredibly cute things every day that make me fall that much more in love.
I GET TO MARRY THAT WOMAN.
I have a job I like in an industry that’s not going anywhere and it’s positioning me well for the future.
Everyone says this, but I really do have the best friends. Sorry everyone else’s friends.
Even though I have a serious five-head, I still have a lot of hair on my head!
I don’t worry about getting older like I used to in my twenties.
Everything just seems to get more awesome!
Everything I’ve learned and experienced up to this point just leads me to the conclusion that the best really is still yet to come.
HEAVENLY BODIES - 1984
A young woman who dreams of owning a health club will stop at nothing to accomplish her goals. When a rival tries to put her out of business, a “dance-down” takes place in this lame low-budget aerobics musical.
This fucking movie.
The craziest thing I’ve read all day is how Barbara Orbison, Roy’s wife, died on Tuesday, exactly 23 years to the day after Roy.
I realize that this is just a crazy coincidence and none of us ever have a say on when our time is up, especially with cancer. That being said, it’s kind of beautiful in a way? Like when one half of a really old married couple dies and then the other passes soon after? Not that I believe in this (in fact, it becomes pretty ridiculous if I think about it too much), but I like the idea of people “joining” each other in the next life.
I also just like the symmetry of two people being joined together forever on their wedding day and then also sharing the same date in death.
Karl Hyde (vocalist, Underworld): We used to go out drinking in Soho and I ended up in the Ship on Wardour Street. All the lyrics were written on that night. A drunk sees the world in fragments and I wanted to recreate that. I was inspired by Lou Reed’s New York album and Sam Shepard’s Motel Chronicles. I was into flash photography as well, so I was walking around Soho with a notebook and camera, just observing things. In those days I’d open the book whenever a musical idea inspired me. Rick [Smith] came up with a rhythm and I started singing over it. The vocals were done in one take. When I lost my place, I’d repeat the same line; that’s why it goes, “lager, lager, lager, lager”. The first time we played it live, people raised their lager cans and I was horrified because I was still deep into alcoholism. It was never meant to be a drinking anthem; it was a cry for help. Now I don’t mind. Why Born Slippy? It was a greyhound we won money on.
They used to have the Trainspotting soundtrack in the jukebox at Footsies and I’d cue it up whenever I was in there. One time I was with Daniel and we picked out a bunch of songs including “Born Slippy” and sat down at the bar. When it finally came on we got excited, because it’s one of our favorite songs, and I don’t think I could ever get tired of it because it’s also an amazing track, but about a minute into it the bartender hit the override button (I never realized that they even had such things!) and was like, “sorry, if I hear that song one more time I’m going to ________”. I don’t remember exactly the words he used but the implication was that if he had to hear that song one more time it would push him over some edge. He was nice enough about it and gave us a bunch of credits to pick other songs but still.
I’m still trying to get this on the wedding playlist but Lindsey is like “it’s too long” and “only you and Daniel are going to be dancing to it.” So radio edit it is! And I mean, isn’t it tradition for the groom and best man to start raving at the reception?
Lot going on there.
Here’s the important message I was sharing:
Kids,
This is your
Dad when he
was 21.
Love,
DadRelated: At the time, I was tripping my balls off.
Also Related: here’s the same place today:
Flintstone car? Still available. Go nuts.
This whole “getting married” business has made me think a lot about “the future”. It’s one thing to know who you’ll be spending the rest of your life with, but what does that life look like? Are there kids? (There will probably hopefully be kids, maybe.) Where do you live and in what kind of home? Are there domesticated pets involved (again, probably/hopefully.) But the thing that trips me out the most is thinking that at some point, if kids are involved, and this Internet thing doesn’t implode, they’re probably going to be able to find a ton of bread crumbs back to photos and stories of the crazy shit that we used to do in our 20s. There are literally hundreds of photos of me on the Internet doing really inappropriate things. Our parents didn’t have these problems because they weren’t posting angsty screeds on LiveJournal (or, egads, DIARYLAND) when they were 20.
I mean, I guess I could just delete and expunge those things from the public record. But wasn’t the whole point of putting things on the Internet for them to remain viewable in perpetuity? These are the dusty handwritten journals that our parents might have kept that are probably lost forever or in a box marked “MISC” in a storage locker or in an attic. The Internet is now grandma’s attic, is what I’m saying, and I just don’t know if I will ever be ready to face my 10 year old 15 years from now when s/he walks up to me with their iPad18 showing me a picture of me passed out on a sofa with my friends drawing dongs on my face and asking, “WTF DAD?!”
I love pictures of young Vin Scully. Happy (belated) 84th, Uncle Vin.
