Saturday, March 24, 2007

Music: Ella Fitzgerald - Misty
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

LOTS to update on. First the law school blah blah.

Rejected from NYU. I'm sad about this one, but not suprised. So many people apply to NYU that they can be really selective. My scores are pretty middle of the road, so I had a feeling I wasn't gonna make the cut. Still, I'd hoped.

But the pretty good news is that I got a wait-list invite from American University. That's kind of like a victory. I think of it as one. I think I could do really well there, so I'd happy about this development. I still have 5 more responses in the wind, so let's see where this goes.

Now for what I really want to talk about: My great-grandpa. In my last entry I said that I was going to use the power of the internets to look for where he is burried. I thought I was going to have to work some kind of crazy google-fu to get something useful.

Did you know that there is a site called www.findagrave.com ? I didn't know that. I do now. It's kind of creepy and yet great at the same time. I found my great-grandfather in, like, ten minutes knowing only his name and the county he was burried in. I'm also pretty sure it's him, given the date of death and the middle initial. I found him. I can barely believe it, but the internet is an amazing thing. We can bring PopPop out to visit in June...See? The internet has a heart :)
This transmission logged byErisSaid on 1:19 PM

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Music: Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins - Handle With Care
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I had really expected the worst for this vacation. My mother, me, and my grandfather? It sounded like a recipe for disaster, right?

It was wonderful. One of the most relaxing vacations I've ever taken. My mother and I got along great. It was breezy so she didn't make me go to the beach (I hate the beach. I do. I go because my friends are going, but I don't really like it there. Put me in a park if I have to be outside. At least there's some shade there.) We went shopping a lot and also had plenty of downtime. I got a *ton* of knitting done and even found a nice yarn shope right near PopPop's house. Bought way too much Noro, but I won't get in to that here. I also bought some stuff to make sweaters for the new babies in the family. Mom and I also got material at the huge fabric store. I've always wanted to sew properly....That area has a lot of crafting stores. It's mostly older folks, so they need do all this stuff to keep busy.

Spent a lot of time with my grandpa, his girlfried, and his little crew of friends. My PopPop is a very popular guy. He knew everyone at church on the day he took us and there were lots of calls coming in from people asking if he wanted to go do this or that over the weekend. We kinda put a crimp in his social calender, but he made it very clear he was happy to see us. I also learned all sorts of stuff about my mom's side of the family. Turns out Pop's from central PA, right by where I went to college! I promised to look up as best I could where his father (who died when my Pop was just two months old) is burried. Pop always said he'd go looking for the grave but he doesn't think it'll be possible at this point. If I can find it, maybe we can take him out there when he comes up to visit in June. The internet is powerful. I hope it has something that can help me find this man burried in a tiny Pennsylvania coal mining town.

This transmission logged byErisSaid on 10:41 AM

~*~*~*~Comments:~*~*~*~

i feel you on the beach. if i wanted to give myself 3rd degree burns all over my body I'd ... wait no i'd never want to.

# posted by  A : 10:58 PM

 

Yay! I'm so glad you had a great vacation! And got lots of knitting done. ~Marie

# posted by  Anonymous : 10:49 AM

 

E. Joyce...;you rock my world Jason

# posted by  Unknown : 8:46 PM

 

Post a Comment

Monday, March 12, 2007

Music: The Mighty Stef - I Love You
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I really really really want to talk about the concert this past saturday, but right now the alarm in the office has been going off for no reason for the last hour and ten minutes. I've called the landlord several times to try and get in touch with the alarm company so they can shut it off, but he's just not answering. Bad day at work overall since I'm here by myself until 5 and have no voice with which to answer the phones....

Okay....Okay....Bitching out of my system....GOD this beeping is going to make me sick.

So yeah. The Flogging Molly concert: Fucking Rocked.

Getting to Starland early was a great idea. Having a fleet of barstools to choose from totally made the evening nicer. Admittedly it was cold as polar bear's balls, but we were still better off than the suckers who showed up late in fuckin' miniskirts. I swear, girls can be such morons. Sorry, sweetie, those little fishnet leggings you're wearing just aren't going to block out the 22 degree windchill.

The opening act was one man with a guitar: The Mighty Stef. Let's think about this: It's Starland. A Flogging Molly show. The other bands on the ticket are Swedish Punks and a band that sounds exactly like the Dropkick Murphys...And here's this guy with an acoustic guitar all by himself on stage. I was worried for him. But you gotta love Jersey crowds. He got a really good reaction. I enjoyed the hell out of his set and concert manner (as Danny said "Guy's got stones being up there just himself with this crowd.), so I picked up the CD. It's a great CD but it unfortunately doesn't have my favorite of the songs he sang at the concert. Nonetheless a good start.

Second act was a Swedish Punk band with a mediocre command of the English language but more than enough enthusiasm to make up for it. The pit went nuts during these guys. I stood on my stool to look for Box and instead saw some blond, skater looking kid get his shit fucked up. It's was cool.

Third opener was a band called Street Dogs. I was a little meh on the fact that they sounded just like Dropkick Murphys until I found out that the lead singer *was* in Dropkick. That's okay then. They put on a good show, but the crowd was ready for Flogging Molly. During their set I went to use the loo (3 Jack and Cokes later and even show bathrooms sound like a good idea). Points to Starland for their relatively clean facilities, but on the way through the crowd, my favorite pink and black hoodie fell off my waist. I was sad, but moved on.

Flogging Molly are amazing in concert. There's no other way to put it. The crowd gets so in to it and it really feels like they enjoy playing their songs. Jumping Dancing Singing, the pit was going nuts...it was really great energy. I have no regrets about losing my voice (which still hasn't come back yet, by the way). They played all the songs that I wanted so much to hear in concert. All of my favorites got hit. They played Another Bag of Bricks which I was convinced they wouldn't. I don't know why but it didn't seem like a live song. I was wrong. They rocked it. First song they played. I could literally go on and on about how much fun I had during their set and at the show as a whole, but I'd like to keep this a readable length.

End of the show, things cleared out pretty quick. I was a bit...worse for wear...by this point, but I was certain sober enough to recognize one of my good friends from college, Michelle, in the crowd. Somehow she noticed me too and we said our hellos and goodbyes. It was really cool seeing such a good friend by such coincidence.

I honestly don't remember the ride back. I fell asleep in the back seat. Apparently we were pulled over and evern that didn't wake me up. Youch. Then when we got to the Roxbury Diner it was pretty clear that I was in no condition to drive home. I crashed at Ant's and after a very long night I slumped my way home again at 8 am.

My parents weren't mad at all. They'd figured I'd stayed at Ant's and to quote both of them, they'd shown up back at home looking worse then I did at that age (although I did look like I'd slept under a bus and was wearing someone else's clothes at the time) and said looked like I'd had a good time. My parents can be pretty cool.

Slept the rest of the day and missed a party for it. It was for the best, guys, really it was. The cold I'd been fighting off is now back in full force but it's clearing up again. And I think I'll have my voice back by tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest. Good times guys, good times.

....And now the landlord has turned off the alarm. I feel better already.

This transmission logged byErisSaid on 10:31 AM

~*~*~*~Comments:~*~*~*~

ok not sure hy it worked this time, but usuall i cant post. for whatever reason blogger never verified my email, and since it forced me to switch to fucking google thats the only way i can post comments on other people blogs. I log in fine but anything that needs a verified email....

# posted by  A : 8:43 AM

 

its the mighty stef here...

while googling my name i found your comment. thanks for buying my album at the starland. lots of the acoustic tunes i sang that night are newly written..i have some of them demoed. if you get in touch with me i might be able to yousend a couple of tunes to you if you tell me what ones youd like.

www.myspace.com/themightystefband email me there..

thanks again

stefan murphy [the mighty stef]

# posted by  TMS : 4:41 PM

 

Post a Comment

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Music: John Mayer - The Heart of Life
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I feel a lot better. There was something kind of eating at me for the past few days, but now I've taken care of it. My mom's been really upset because, after she got laid off from her job she had wanted to take some time off. Now she feels like she needs to go right out and get another job...

The thing I wasn't supposed to know was that she felt this way because my dad quit his job the same day she got laid off. For the past week I've been the only one pulling in a paycheck. What the hell is wrong with this picture.

I wasn't supposed to know...but I did...and my dad was lying to me. I asked him one day when I saw him home at 2:00 after going out that morning "Short day at the office?" figuring I'd give him a chance to tell me the truth. Instead he said "Yup" as if lying was the most natural thing in the world. I was so pissed, but didn't show it. He's very pround and very stubborn...but there's a fine...No not fine it's actually a pretty defined line...between being proud and being a damned liar.

So after my mother had depression spell #5 this morning (utterly fatalistic conversation in which she says she can't do what she wants because there's nothing she want's to do and if she did want to do something it wouldn't really be what she wanted to do because there's nothing to do...look no one ever said this shit would make sense...) I just confronted my dad. He said not to worry, that he had 3 or 4 jobs lined up and he would probably be back to work within the next week and a half. He said he'd told mom that and that she didn't have to go right back to work but she "just wouldn't listen." I called him out on the lying thing about going to the office. His response was "Well it was a short day at the office. Very very short. And not the office you were thinking of. It was a quick interview." I say now as I said then: Har har fuckin' har.

Nice to know where I get my smartass genes.

So basically my conclusion is this: They are both acting like children and my best course of action will be to outright ignore them both until Dad gets back to work and mom finds something less personal to complain about.

GOD and then there's the upcoming trip to Florida....I want to see Pop Pop...but traveling with my mother....Dear God in Heaven please let this not end in murder or disowning....

Lastly, I got my first ever rejection letter. It came George Washington Law School, not one that I was stoked about but not one I was like "Aw hell why not" about either. One of the midcards. And you know what? I'm not really even all that upset. Everyone gets rejected sometimes. I got rediculously lucky in applying to college because I got in to my first choice school on early decision. I've never gotten a rejection letter. And I would have probably forgotten all about it already if not for....

....My mother is more upset than I am. It's not even one of my top choices but she's still upset "on my behalf." It's really not necesary. I'm fine. But in her own words "I'm just not used to you getting rejected." Well. You can't win every time. It's just not possible. Seriously. I've got like 8 other applications out there. And if I don't get in this time? I'm going to keep applying. Everyone trips and falls sometimes. No one ever said life was easy. Sorry, Mom. My existance isn't charmed. I am just as prone to human failure as the rest of the world. Plus, there are a LOT of people MUCH smarter than me. I know that.

....Besides. I've got enough to worry about making sure she and Dad don't throw too many hissy fits at eachother....I thought I stopped babysitting when I was 17. Maybe I should remind them of my hourly rate....

This transmission logged byErisSaid on 1:14 PM

~*~*~*~Comments:~*~*~*~ Post a Comment

[web-design by may]