Muse and other music thoughts...

Lets start with Muse.
I SAW THEM THURSDAY NIGHT!!!!!!
Muse is a band I saw at Coachella this year. Those readers of mine know it was my highlight of the the weekend. Its rare when I watch a live show that I'm brought to tears, joy and passion all in the same sitting. Muse does this to me.
I heard they were coming to Honda Center, but due to finances and honestly my lack at purchasing anything online they promptly sold out. This didnt stop T from finding a way to get us tickets through pretty much her genuine love of me. 2 other friends of ours had tix as well on the other side of the venue. We all arrived at my house, drank, chatted and laughed and headed out. We parked down the street a bit and trekked over to Honda Center. Passion Pit was opening and this was a fave of T's so we took a quick pic of us 4 then shot off in our different directions. When T and I got to our seats we flipped. We were so close!!!!!!!!!!!! 6 rows up from the floor - off to the side a smidge - perfect. They were right there!!!!!! Passion Pit was lovely, we scooted out to get booze, food and merchandise. Back to our seats for Muse. "Kate Hudson!" T shouts pointing - there she is, with a little posse making a bee line for the tech booth area on the floor. Lucky bitch is banging the singer for Muse. The concert begins. 3 towers covered in a material with images of people walking then falling...very 9/11-esk. BAM - they drop and the powerhouse concert begins. The band was on key, sounded brillant, excellant show. The towers went up and down. They had random images throughout the set. When he played the piano with the war like images in the background I almost lost it. Green laser lights shot out into the crowd making for an acid head's dream. They were amazing.
Music is an interesting thing. There are certain bands/songs/lyrics that hit your heart and your soul like nothing else. Certain songs or albums that happen right at a pivotal point in your life and they stick with you forever. A live performance that is so fucking awesome you never forget it. Music constantly amazes me. The depth of it, the talent of it, the sheer magnitude of how it can affect your life.
I have a huge range of music I like - I'm certainly not stuck on one type or one genre. I love blues, funk, rock, alternative, jam bands, heavy metal, hip hop, jazz, classical. Country and pop I'm not as keen on. But there are still a few gems in those genre's I like.
Live music is another beast - I've been disappointed in the past when I fall in love with a band and then I see them perform live and they dont live up. I want to see you tear it up on your album and on that stage. I'm not asking for too much because I've seen it. Some of my all time favorite bands to see live are: Tower of Power, Gogol Bordello, Grateful Dead, Muse, Pink Floyd, Blind Boys of Alabama, BB King, DJ Z-trip and many others. And all for different reasons! Music is so vast. So much. So amazing. I cannot understand how there are people in this world that dont have music in thier life at all. How do they live???
I love getting blown away by bands I'm not familiar with. Alot of my friends will bring me along to concerts or festivals where I have no idea who the people are we're going to see - and BAM - I'm slapped in the face with some brilliant music.
Johnny Lang...friggin kid!!!! Sang the blues like nothing I've ever heard. Mad Marionettes - a local band of kids that play at Bistro sometimes....so unusual and so fun to watch. I could go on and on and on about shows I've seen and fallen in love with.
There was a fun little thing that went around on FB recently - something about listing 15 albums in 15 minutes that somehow affected your life in whatever way. You werent to think just list them as fast as you could. Mine are below - and it was fascinating to look back at what I threw out there and there's something about each album that touched me for a very different reason. What albums obviously stuck in my mind like that.
Music.
Its amazing.
Plain and simple.

Grateful Dead - American Beauty



Pink Floyd - The Wall



Blink 182 - Self Titled



Tower of Power - Monster on a Leash



Beatles - Abbey Road



B.B. King - Gold



Metallica - And Justice for All



Muse - The Resistance



Green Day - American Idiot



Earth, Wind & Fire - Faces



Gogol Bordello - Gyspy Punks Underdog World Strike



Bob Marley - Exodus



Motley Crue - Theater of Pain



Billy Holiday - Blues Legends



My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade

Labor Day Weekend...

Was a good one!
Started off Friday night with T rollin my exhausted ass into Long Beach to see my friends band play at Clancy's. Its a 2 person band that pretty much makes songs up on the spot. They were a kick! T and I were also joined by 2 very colorful gentleman in thier 50's maybe? That proceeded to ramble on repeating themselves (drunk or just way out of it?) about art, soldier field, baseball and others. Oh - and apparently one of them bought a victrola from the other. Ok.
Saturday was the 1st Street Fair Day. We all met up at the lil bro's house who was in town for the weekend (He needs to be home and not work up north because I'm selfish and want him here). Anywhoo - Dad, me, T, bro, D, and Sutherland all met up with our bikes ready to roll. After a few drinks (Yes its a holiday, we're allowed to drink before 11am) we biked over to the Fair and arrived around 11:30. El Buen Taco as usual was our first stop. After some yummy tacos, beer (Yes I had a beer!!) and visiting with the Sumi's and some other friends we wandered on to Swedish Street and stuffed our faces with Abelskevers. Not before I purchased a large bag of Kettle Korn. We then rolled over to our favorite spot at Rod's Liquor where the booze is cheaper and they have much more variety instead of just beer. We never left. I guzzled Mike's Hard Lemonades while the rest guzzled beers. We munched on Gyros and yummy greek pastry someone shoved in my mouth. Miss Cumby joined us and we saw a few friends come and go. Great convo with many peeps then the heat started bearin down. Off we go. We stopped and grabbed some beef teriyaki sticks that were AMAZING and stumbled back to our bikes. Off we go. Back to bros. Court joined us, dad left and a very entertaining game of Cranium began. This was then followed by Taboo. The highlights of the evening were bro's charade of "Baywatch", D's charade of "Who let the dogs out" and learning that Miss Cumby is the goddess of Taboo.
Sunday started off mellow. Chillin poolside at lil bros, drinkin and laughing. We finally roll out bike style. This time its just Me, bro, D and Court. We catch American Wake's 1st set which of course is AMAZING. We all love them so very much. A Symphony co-hort whom I've developed a friendship with joins us as well as my girl Robin. We watch the whole set, bouncing and laughing and loving it. Off we head. The only bummer of the day is we run into dude who stomped on my heart earlier this year with his chickie. I played if off well - I'm an actress you know - and with the support and good moves of bro and Robin we moved on. I said hello to my new boss at the Chapman booth and we headed down Swedish Street. Bro said hi to the O's crew while Robin and I fended off a very drunk strange girl and we promptly hit up Rod's again, where we again - stayed. Its perfect - its just off the street so its not crowded, the booze is cheap and people come to you. We had a huge amount of friends come and go - our neighbors, Ber and KT, lots of bro's friends and many many more. I scarfed down a pulled pork sandwich and a backlava and chose champagne for the drink of choice that eve. We would have stayed longer but low and behold it was actually f-ing cold! We stood it as long as we could and rolled out around 8:30 listening to the Wake as we rode our bikes past. It was a little rough comin home - it was ass cold, I was the only bike with a light and we had to be very careful with the bunches of people and cars hoping no one was driving drunk. We got home unscathed after a stop at the store to refuel our drink supply and chilled once again at bro's. Much more of a mellow night involving Wenerscnetzel and good convo. I crashed hard that night.
Today was a day of running around - getting ready for the week. Uploaded pics, had lunch with T, bought biz attire for the new job, and ran a few other errands. The roomie popped open a good bottle of pinot and we hit the hot tub. I jacked my foot up again, hoping it will heal before I start personal training (Oh did I mention I'm doing that - Keep you posted) and here I type.
All in all - great weekend, lots of food which I'm starting to pay for and as always - great fuzzy fun Labor Day memories made!
Back to the real world.

Update...

I feel I can officially say it now...even though most of you probably already know...
I HAVE A NEW JOB!
Today was my last day at Pacific Symphony. With a cupcake send off I was out the door. I've been working both jobs this week, but tommorow is my 1st offical day as a full time Chapman University employee!!! I'm really really really hoping this will be a good opportunity for me. I'm hoping to GAWD its what I've been hoping for. So far it seems to be. Its close - I'm hopefully going to actually start riding my bike to work which would be AWESOME. After working there for 6 months I can start going to school there for pretty much free. Bennies are good. I'm getting paid a tiny bit more. And already I feel more welcome then I've ever felt at a new job. You should see the email my new boss sent out announcing my arrival. I felt like a star. I really do think this will be a really good thing for me!
I'm not gonna lie...smoking these past 2 weeks have been bad. Not that its an excuse but this has been the a couple of the knarliest couple of weeks. Dont fret - I'm not back to the full blown smoker I was, but I have been cheating way too much. With Street Fair and lil bro in town this weekend I'm probably going to be very very bad. BUT - Next week is a new week. I'll be at my new job, I'm hopefully going to be doing alot more active crap by biking my fat ass too work, I need to diet and I need to cut out those cheats completely and officially be a non-smoker. It'll happen. Just takin a bit longer then I care to admit.
Not all is perfect of course. Papa is still a major concern. I worry more and more about him each day. I still need to replace my cadalitic converter on my truck and finances of course are always looming.
But dammmit I think I've got some good comin my way. FINALLY.
I couldnt get into OCC - classes were full. I seriously think this is a sign. This job couldnt have come at a more critical time. I'm wanting to go back to school, and here it is. Plopped in my lap.
I'm of course terrified because its a whole new system and I have ALOT to learn and you all know me...I want to excel at everything right now. So patience has to come into play and I have to learn the new job and suck it up that I'll be a bit slow at first, but I really think it'll be awesome.
I'm also starting up kickball again - quite excited about that!
Street Fair is this weekend, so let the drunken, gluttony fest begin. Well Saturday anyway. As for tonite - I should be in bed.
So that is all at this point folks. Just taking shit day by day and hoping to hell things will start looking on the up and up.
I'm feeling good.
Holy Hell.....

Foodie Fest...

So T, JJ, Cumby and Petey decided to check out the Foodie Fest 2010 in the Honda Center parking lot. It boasted of 50 gourmet food trucks, arts & crafts and bands. At $12 a ticket we thought - what the hell. We deemed it Roachella.
We all met at Starbucks down the street, and enjoy the fabulous very random butterfly haven and Cumby informs us its sold out. WTF. T, JJ and I had bought tix online, but Petey and Cumby were sans tix. We decided to risk it and try to find someone with extra tix. If fail - Petey and Cumby hit the movies. We all head out, pay $5 to park down the street a ways and trek on over. Cumby sees 2 ladies leavin - she returns w/thier tix hoping for a miraculous re-entry rule. Of course you cant. We stand around for a bit trying to come up with a plan and JJ heads over to the folks who scan your tix. A few min later she's waving us over. We walk in, the scanner gal makin a funny "oops" face when Cumby/Petey's tix were obviously pre-scanned. We find out JJ pulled out a sob story about disabled parking and didnt know about no re-entry, and our disabled friend, etc etc. Petey was proud his stroke helped us out. So here we are.
We get in line at one of the trucks. The lines are RIDICULOUS. I'm starving, so I start line jumping thinking I keep finding shorter lines, of course I dont so I finally stay in Maui Wowy. The others are still in line at Cart for a Cause. Half way thru my line I realize its a smoothie truck. DAMMIT. I need real food - so I hop over to Krazy BBQ. The others find me - T brings me a taco, knowing I'm goin to start murdering people if I dont eat. (We decide Cart for a Cause has the best set up because its a pre-set up meal - 2 tacos, cerviche, a cookie and a drink - gives you a sample of thier food and it moves along quickly) She joins me in line and the others head out to the pizza truck. After what seemed like a decade we get our short rib sammich and polish hot dog and head to the beer garden. The others are still in Pizza Truck line (Slice Truck was its actual name). Cumby had re-joined them with a sushi meal from a sushi truck. T and I pop a squat in a smidge of shade on the ground and eat our meals. So good but so messy! We have our 1st drink. "Where are the others?!" Apparently Slice Truck took longer then Krazy BBQ and they finally joined us what seemed over an hour later. At this point we were a little annoyed and not sure if we wanted to stay. Quite some time later after many many laughs in the Beer Garden where we discovered that us 4 girls could actually rule the world (Cumby is our magic touch, T is the enabler, JJ will do anything for $1 and I'm the heavy) we head out. We hit the Cultura Y Mas booth and drool over the lovely items. They frequent Santa Ana Art area - so we hold out on purchases. Then Cumby and I have some hippie bonding at booth that sells scenty sprays. I hit up Fishlips Truck and try thier sushi (It was ok) and chatted with a poor fellow who has been trying to hit up the Ludo Truck multiple times and always miss it - then here they drive down from LA just to find they sell out. Petey and I are heading towards another truck when Cumby and T appear with coconut waters that the Coconut truck swears they were out of when Cumby promptly reached in and apparently pulled out the last 2 ones. She's got the touch. We now find ourselves in line at the Crepe's truck and T appears with a burrito from Calbi that sent her over the edge. JJ appears with a Pastrami sammich which I promptly follow her back to Lee's Philly truck to get myself one - this puts me over the edge. We're noticing the lines are much shorter, but alot of the trucks are selling out of thier food. The crowds are thinning out and its dying quite quickly and its not even 6pm yet. (Its supposed to go till 7) We give up crepes since the line would not move and Cumby appears with chicken wings and potatoes - this was the end. We all now are about to keel over and die from all the food we have stuffed in our faces the whole day. JJ in fact states she's about to poop out a house. We head out and say goodbye to JJ while the rest of us crowd around a table at JT Schimids and enjoy a couple of cocktails. I'm falling asleep at the table due to major lack of sleep the night before and we again enjoy plenty of laughter. We head out and I promplty crash out before 9pm.
All in all it was a decent day. Lee's Philly was by far my favorite. Seriously some of the best pastrami I have ever eaten. The Krazy BBQ was pretty damn good as well. I know T was a fan of her Calbi burrito and if you like thin oily pizza - The Slice Truck is for you. This was thier 1st year, so they definatly have some bugs to work out but I'd say it was a fun event for sure! Not sure if I'd hit again due to the amount of time you have to wait, unless they somehow improve that, but it was a pretty damn fun day with some fantastic company!

Its early...

Got home after 1am this morning. Rolled my ass outta bed this morning at 6am to help ma with her garage sale. Good Lord. My eyes are grainy, I'm a little fuzzy and my mind is spinnin.
Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.
You'd think I'd be breathing easier due to the smoking thing, but maybe if I actually completly quit I would be. Dont worry - havent started up again by any means, but I'm still cheating here and there. Not gonna lie. I've got to be honest with myself if I'm gonna get through this. I'm so strung out right now though its hard as hell. So there's goods and bads to report this cold and cloudy early morning (WTF summer?!)
I can officially announce it. I got another job. I'll be working at Chapman University! I'm a little freaked out, ok alot freaked out. I got one day of training last week and I'll be going in nights next week after the Symphony and hoping to GAWD I remember at least an inkling of what the gal filled my brain with on training day. The scary thing is, I have no one there to help me. Apparently no one else is trained to do this. Oh lord oh lord oh lord.
So next week will be a little harry. M-Th workin my last week at PSO in the day and rollin into Chapman at night. Then Friday will be my 1st full day at Chapman.
Once I get the hang of the job (Its pretty much the same thing I was doing at PSO just on an entirely different system and a college is waaaaaaaaaaay different then an arts organization) I will be really excited. After working there 6 months I can go to school there!!!! Alot of the programs are free to employees! (Not all, but alot!) I can go to a private university FOR FREE! That's what sold me. So - there's the news. The good news I'm hopin! I also get to drive a little golf cart like thing apparently so that will be for interesting times I'm sure.
To balance out the good of course there is still the looming car issue. I have yet to find someone to replace the cadaletic converter. Yes. I admit I havent tried very hard....It pains me to have forked out so much money last week and I'm still not done. But I gotta do it. Damn car. I only have like 1 more year to pay off that damn truck and if it dies on me after that I may kill someone. I'm so excited for the 1st time in my life to have a vehicle and not a payment!!! I mean I already have the ex-douchebag's loan, if I could eliminate one of em...well you've all heard it. Ugh.
Ok lets do good bad good bad here....so another good - my lovely T-mow got us tix to Muse. We're like 6 row from the floor or something like that. I'm so excited to see them. They were my favorite at Coachella this year.
Bad. Papa worries me. You've all read how much my Papa means to me. I know how life is. I know we all live and we all die. But I dont want to lose him. I'm also reeeeeally sick of people saying "Well Jami he IS 96 you know....". Fuck you. He's my Papa. I dont care how old he is, and yes I'm so thankful he's been with us all these years, dont even think I've taken a second of that for granted, but I probably love him more then I've ever loved anyone. Seeing him slow down so very much these past couple of years is tearing me apart.
Ok GOOD. Shit that last one teared me up. I am tired as hell though remember....
Lil bro comes home for Labor Day! I'm watching my girls right now playing - Tweaks is hiding under the chair poking out her paw every few seconds trying to attack her sister above. Watching the chair cover pouf and Tabitha jump is pretty damn funny.
Bad - I've gained weight. I really didnt want to be that girl who tries to quit smoking and becomes a fatty. I was thinking of going on a diet but I honestly dont even know how to diet....Sigh.
Ok lets end on a good....ummmmm The Harris/Alamo wedding was lovely last weekend, the shhhhhhhhhhh party was as always a kick, and I'm headin out to a Foodie Fest today that T has deemed Roachella. Diet will have to wait. Lets hope it warms the fuck up.

Amusing....

I dont sweat the small stuff.
I dont know why, but I thought that was funny.
I had a gift card to Barnes & Noble, and heard a rumour they may be closing or getting bought out so I figured I should use it. I grab a Christopher Moore book, a Rolling Stone Magazine and I have about $10 left - for funners I pick up "Dont Sweat the Small Stuff Workbook". I like things like that - books that kinda quiz you, or motivate you, or inspire you.
So I've gone through the 1st couple of "tests". The scoring was pretty funny - "You dont seat the small stuff" was one result. The other was "Your pretty easy going".
This is true.
I guess when really f-ed up situations happen to me I flip out. Sadly more of those have happened to me in my life then I care to admit.
Maybe thats why I dont sweat the small stuff. Its just small. I mean - one of the things you were supposed to score yourself on was "How do you react if someone in front of you at the grocery store has more then 10 items in the 10 items only line." Another one was "How do you react when the cable goes out during your favorite TV show". My answers were pretty much who the fuck cares. Then I thought...do people actually freak out about this stuff? I mean really?! But I guess so or these books wouldnt have been written right?
I dont know...I find it pretty interesting what sets people off. Death, divorce, hard times, set backs...I mean those suck. Those are issues. But "How do you react if your drive thru order is wrong?". Please.
I'll continue to finish the workbook - I'm sure I'll get fun little somethings out of it.
But ya -
I really am easy going, except when life blindsides me and knocks me on my ass. Guess my ass has just gotten really strong from gettin knocked on it so many times.
So to those out there who do "Sweat the small stuff". I just dont get ya.

Tipsy ramblings....

Ok.
I'm not gonna lie.
A bit buzzed.
The roomie broke out a very nice bottle of red tonite due to the fact that I had a mini mental breakdown today.
Started out as such:
Last nite...the check engine light came on. I've had my ABS and emergency brake lites poppin up on my dashboard for months now, but I had my front brakes fixed already thinking this would solve the problem. Alas no.
Whatever. Its a glitch.
So. The check engine light came on, I have to drive to Temecula on Sat for a wedding that could pan out to be really rockin and very beneficial on my end on Sat, I dont want shit to be wrong with my car. I call out of work today and bring my car to the dealership early this morning.
Its gonna be $200 just to look at it because dude 1 has to check the engine lite ($100) and dude 2 needs to check the brake lites ($100). Whatever.
I get the call.
Engine lite dude says I need a new cadalitic converter. $1300. FML. I tell him to hold off.
I get the 2nd call.
Dude 2 says my Anti Lock Brake System isnt working right. $1200. I go ahead to fix this because I'm a girl and I dont know what the hell that means but he mentions panic stops not working and that scares the shit out of me.
Breakdown.
I have been doing so good at paying off this GODAMN loan of my ex-husbands and this is going to set me back so much. I lose it. Fuck! Fuck! and Fuck some more!!!!!
I pull it together. I watch Under the Tuscan Sun. One of my fave and most inspirational movies. I nap. I cry. I call my father who sets me off again into an actual nervous breakdown and I actually vomit.
Yup. That happened.
I'm sure it's a combination of some very big changes happening in my life, my Papa not doing well, my finances already fucked, and on and on and on.
I havent cried this hard in quite some time.
My truck is ready.
I ride my bike in the 100 degree humidity heat to the dealership to pick up my car and charge the ungodly amount. I drive home. I cry some more.
I go to dinner with an ex who pays and feeds me alcohol.
I come home - roomie offers a nice bottle of red saying I deserve it because cars suck. We polish off the bottle over tipsy fun conversation and now here I am.
I breathe.
I'll get through this.
Its a set back.
A big fucking set back.
But I'll get through it.
I need that call tommorow.
I NEED IT.
Now off to crash and hopefully have hope filled happy dreams.
Fucking cars.