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Mmmm. Travel…

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Because it’s more fun than thinking about the slightly depressing Mom-related thing I just finished doing, i will now think about travel.

I decided last night that I’m going to New York for Spring Break. It’s been more than a year, so it is way past time. It’s still relatively inexpensive in early March–although not as cheap as in January–and the climatological odds are more in my favor. So yeah. New York. I may run into streamlined ska librarians, craft beer bars in Jersey, and klav kalash with all the trimmings. It’ll be fun. Maybe I’ll actually get the pictures from last year’s trip posted before I go.

And I found out today that I have to be in the Bay Area the last week in June to present at the RBMS Pre-Conference in Oakland that’s held just before ALA. I’m not wild about the destination, but I’m planning to do what I need to do in SF and environs and then get the hell out of there and head for either Los Angeles or Seattle. This should be shortly after I submit my tenure portfolio, so I imagine I will be very much in need of a significant vacation at that point.

I also might drive down to Charlotte to go to IKEA and hit some thrift stores tomorrow but that’s not nearly as exciting, I guess…

Old enough to drink in Canada

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The little websites that could but rarely do anymore™ turn 19 today.

A lot of the small updates have moved over to Twitter and the larger, more thoughtful updates seem to be in a holding pattern right now, but you never know what that coming year might bring.

Anyway, thanks to all of you who have hung around this long. I still think it’s been a pretty entertaining ride.

Videolog: Fate Screen

Mimico
Fate Screen (2014)

Maybe it’s because this was exactly the kind of stuff I loved at the time, but this (which is only a couple of months old, actually) really reminds me of something very specific and very 1983. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is. Your assistance is requested.

Hooking up

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Two thoughts upon reading this article:

  1. Joel Simkhai seems like a completely vapid little wanker, with whom I would never want to have dinner or a conversation. I imagine he would most likely prefer to skip any potential encounter with me as well. I’m really okay with that.
  2. Given Grindr as one’s only hookup option, celibacy starts looking really attractive.

To start, let’s make it clear that I have no problem with hookups. That would be pretty hypocritical on my part given that it used to be one of my primary hobbies. I also don’t have a problem with meeting people online. I met many of my best friends, random sex partners, and even my ex-husband online. But I met most of those people because of words not in spite of them.

I’m just not ready to be a product that can be ordered from a database, I guess, and my hesitation is only partly due to my fear that no one would choose me.

No…seriously?

Every once in a while, I check to see what my old hovel might rent for now that San Francisco has moved one step beyond into the era of super, cartoonishly ridiculous rents. Apparently, a unit in my old building (they were all pretty much identical) was on the market just last month for the princely sum of $3200/month.

$3200.

If you’ve ever visited the place, you understand just how laughably insane I find that number.  In 1992, I thought it was a little overpriced even for San Francisco at the time, at $800. When I moved out in 2005, rent control had limited the increase to about $935. At the going rate of inflation in the US, it should be renting now for around $1400.

But no.

$3200.

I rather liked my old landlord and I’m glad he’s raking in the money. I imagine there have been some renovations since I left.

But damn.

$3200.

Maybe I should’ve bought property there. It’s not like I’d have to live in it or anything.

17 things…

I usually don’t take these “click bait” lists very seriously, but a friend of a friend posted this one the other day and it’s surprisingly spot on.

1,2,3,6,8,9,11,14,15,16,17

Humor: Biggie. Sometimes I think I rely on it too much and that other people think I never take anything seriously. Which is so not the case.

Hurting other people’s feelings: Horrifies me.

  • Unless they deserve it for being an asshole to someone else (or a group).
  • I can’t be an asshole, even when I sort of need to (e.g. employee who needs discipline, person I need to ease out of my life)

Easily hurt, though you’d maybe not know it and I’d probably try to laugh about it to minimize things.

Suspicious and wary of other people, especially when they’re in groups.

  • Sometimes even if they’re my friends.
  • Afraid to approach and join in.

Definitely hard for me to be vulnerable or to “owe” anyone. I try to be very self-sufficient when it comes to emotional shit and only like to talk about it in broad terms, or to make jokes. And I kind of resent it when people use me for help, especially if they have hurt me in the past.

Whole lotta Canada onstage

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Sloan at Cat’s Cradle Backroom. This makes up for not getting to see them last year in Toronto. This was actually better (and much cheaper) because it was a small club. Great show with many fewer annoying 19-year-olds than at most shows in Chapel Hill. And my minor crush on Chris Murphy continues stronger than ever now that we’ve been just fifteen or twenty feet from each other. Sigh…

Randomly Wednesday night

Watching “Naked City” and recovering after class and a really long day, the following come to mind:

  • I had no idea while I was doing the Planet SOMA US Tour in 1997, this was going on pretty much simultaneously. I’m reading a book on it now, one of my acquisitions from last month’s annual “Thanksgiving in Canada” road trip.
  • Speaking of Thanksgiving trips, I’m thinking of fleeing to Atlanta for American Thanksgiving this year.
  • Speaking of Canada, I’m seeing Sloan next week in Chapel Hill. I have seen many of my favorite Canadian bands this year. I have not actually seen any of them in Canada.
  • I have a houseguest in the spare room; I’m helping out a friend who needs a place to stay for a week or so as he looks for a new home. He’s a nice guy and is generally being a “good guest” but I hate having someone else (someone whose quirks I don’t know all that well)  in my house for an extended period. I’ve lived alone too long and I do not envision marriage or a roommate ever being an option for me again. And no, he’s not a follower of this site.
  • It’s McRib season again. You probably don’t care. That’s fine. More for me.