We are home!

And we have a new baby!

Joseph Edward was born Dec 28th at 9:11am. He was 8lbs, 8oz, and 20 and a half inches long.

You can look at pics here.

All in all this experience was way better than the last, what with the 22 hours of labor and the emergency C-section at the end and all the blood and what not.

This was a lot smoother and scream-free. The birth was better, the recovery was better, and the nursing staff was better. Even the free shit the hospital gave out was better.

So. We are home. You can call if you want. We will be chillin' for a week or so, just getting to know that baby.

-J.

Tomorrow

I will be a dad for the second time. Having a planned c-section is awesome for the planning stage of the pregnancy, but shitty for everything else.

It is supposed to happen, barring any emergencies that may push us back, at 9:00am. I hope by the end of the day to post some pics or something. I'm trying not to freak out, and the only thing I'm really worried about is Jackson's reaction. I know he'll get over it eventually, but I still worry.

In other news:

Our christmas was a lot of fun. We had a good time. Jackson got so much Thomas the Tank Engine stuff, one could choke a rhino with it. Jen and I got both a new video camera and a new digital camera. Lots of filming will be done. yay. My favorite thing I got was my "Tulsa Peeps Unite" shirt. It has a robot on it.

Um... That's it more soon.

-JP

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everybody!

awwww....YEAH!

How many times can I say that I am excited? One more won't hurt.

I am excited. Click here.

See what I mean. That slow blink at :57 is driving me nuts.

I have an ear infection.

As well as a sinus infection. Here is the story:

On the plane trip home from Denver after Thanksgiving, I felt a little under the weather, but chalked it up to travel yuck. Then I got really sick, and spent two days in bed with the lights off, wishing for sweet slumber to shroud me in his purple cloak, or death. Or some shit. I wanted to feel better. So I did what any man would do, and exceeded the recommended dosage of several over the counter drugs and floated back to work. After a while, I felt better but had lingering stuffies and a chest mucous that was being expelled at an alarming rate. I was missing my healthy smoker's cough anyway (I more or less quit back in April), so I didn't mind.

About a week ago, my ears were all plugged up, so I went to town with the off-brand Q-tipTM or cotton swab. My right ear felt line, but my left was a little poppy after a day, so thinking I missed something I went back at it. I went a little too far, and lost hearing in my left ear. I frantically searched google, and found that this happens all the time and that there is even a warning on the box. I guess only the name brand does that, because I checked, and it wasn't there. Based on what Internet said, I assumed that I either pushed a heap of wax way far back, or ruptured my eardrum. I decided to wait it out. A week later, I had developed a distinct ringing, reminiscent of the few days after seeing Skinny Puppy or Ministry live. I decided it was time to see the doctor.

Once there, The Doc looked me over, and when she got to my ears, she couldn't even see in there. We have to irrigate, she says. A while later, the nurse shows up with a giant plastic syringe and a bucket full of a mixture of Hydrogen peroxide and hot water. I hold this smaller bucket with a notch cut out for the ear up to the side of my head, and he proceeds to squirt the stuff into my ear with the strength of a fire hose. On the third or fourth try, I can suddenly hear again!
"Whoa! That did it!" I say.
"um.... Yeah." He says, and shows me what's in the little bucket. It is not pretty.
The Doc comes back and looks in my ear.
"Oh, yeah," she says. "You have an ear infection.
Well duh.

I am now on antibiotics. And some kickin decongestants, that may have been half-way made into meth already. I'm happy about my ear. Don't let those things go, kids. Oscar Wilde died from an ear infection, you know. And you don't want to be like Oscar Wilde do you?

-JP

ICE STORM!!!

So, um, yeah. There is an inch of ice covering the city. A quarter of a million people don't have power, and I would say 85% of the businesses and all of the schools are closed. Airport has no power. Bush declared us a disaster. The first time he's been right about something. Good times.

Check this out. Kinda cool.

I work for a 24/7 news organization, so I still have to come in. Yesterday I totally spun out on the highway and went off the road and down the embankment, luckily landing facing the correct way on an on-ramp, so I could just get back on the road, which is what I did. No harm done.

Jen and the boy are at home and going a but stir crazy, so they may go to the mall play area because of course the mall still has power. She and the rest of the city. They might make the grandparent rounds today, just for a change of scenery.

Jen's Dad has no power, so he may be staying with us tonight. It will be our luck that as soon as everybody gets to our house, the power will blow.

-JP

So, um

These photos have been making the rounds lately. I don't know what they are for, but they are kind of awesome. Maybe as part of Lindsey's sentance, she has to hang with comic nerds as a community service.

There is also this. Iron Man looks pretty good. I'm actually excited about that movie. Also this. Fun.

In other news: Jackson is very excited about Christmas. I'm not sure he really knows why, but he knows that the world is building to something and that it involves flashing lights and shiny things.

I think that's all I have right now.

-JP

I have to say...

...That the poster for the new Harold & Kumar movie is pretty damn awesome:

Traveling with a 2 year old..

Is not as difficult as you'd think. I had him on a little tether, so that helped.

Anyway, I went to Denver for the Thanksgiving holiday. I had a good time. I didn't get to see nearly anybody that I wanted to see, but I had a boy in tow, which meant that the family hogged me a bit.
The trip out was nerve wracking, just because it was the first time me and the boy had to deal with travelling on our own. Security went smoothly, though I don't know why I was forced to take his shoes off as well. It went so smoothly, in fact, that we were left with a long time to wait, and yes, the plain got delayed by about 45 min. Jackson was excited to get on the plane, but once we were on it, he didn't realize that we had to stay on it, and after about 5 minutes, he started saying: All done. Wanna go now! When the plane finally took off, he conked right out. whew! We stayed at my mom's new condo downtown, which had an awesome view. We settled in with the fam. Thursday we ate turkey. I chased Jackson around all day while Tim's kids talked about home theaters and motorcycles. Jack heard them talking and said: "Motorcycle go Vroom! Vroom! Crash!" which is surprisingly accurate. I went out that night and saw Jeremy, Cain, Kindra and a few other random people and had a really good time. We even saw a fight that spilled out og the bar across the street. Fun.
Friday was spent primarily at my Dad's house, and was also very pleasant. We ate at Carmine's and played with my Dad's model train set. Jackson took a giant sploogy dump and we had to wash all of his clothes. Fatherhood is awesome. I had dinner that night with Aaron and Amy, and they are wonderful people, I tell you.
Saturday I went to Pablo's and hung out all morning.




We ate Lunch, and were on our way. This time, the plane was delayed 2 hours, and Jackson was so friggin' bored by the end of it, he was happy to crash out in the canned air. Now, I ask you this: Why in the hell do airports not have a children's play area like the mall does? Do you know how many marriages that would save? Airports suck.
We made it home, and I spent two whole days sick in bed. I don't know if I caught it on the trip or when I got back but it was a doozy. Hence the late holiday posting. Sorry about that.

-JP

I watched a lot of movies this weekend

And I don't know why.

Jackson stayed at PaPa B's house Saturday night, but I'm not sure that made any difference. What was weird was the scope of movies I watched this weekend. First off was Pan's Labyrinth,
a movie about a young girl who is immersed in a world of faeries, sprites, and other woodland creatures, and should definitely not, under any circumstances, be viewed by children. NOT a kid's movie. That being said, it is a wonderful, dark, disturbing movie and I loved it. I like that the whole thing could very well be a construct of the little girl's mind, and just a coping mechanism. Or it could be real. What I didn't get was the title, though. The 'Pan' character is actually called The Faun, and the Spanish title translates to The Labyrinth of The Faun, and there is no character anywhere called Pan. So why Pan? Are Americans just more familiar with Pan? Is Greek mythology more widely read than Shakespeare? Does it just sound better? That last one is my guess, because it does. Trailer here.
Next was The Misfits starring Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe and Eli Wallach. An oldie but a goodie. More interesting because of what was going on off screen. Monroe was in the middle of both a mental break down, and a divorce from the movie's writer, Arthur Miller, and was spiraling down her path of drink and pills. She had to attend the premiere on a day-pass from a psychiatric center. She was dead within a year. Clark Gable had a heart attack three days after filming ended, and died 11 days later. It was the last movie for both. John Houston spent most nights drinking and gambling in Reno, where the film was shot. Montgomery Clift was his usual pill popping self. It seems the title could refer to the characters or the cast & crew.

Next up was The Black Hole, a movie I haven't seen since I was a little kid, but I remember loving it back then. If you forget that this was put into production solely because of the success of Star Wars, and the obvious scientific shortcomings, then the movie still holds up. It is slightly fragmented, as the writers were obviously unsure of how to merge the epic, sweeping, slow pacing of standard sci-fi up to that time, ie 2001 and the like, with the obvious appeal of fast paced action ala Star wars. The mix is clunky, but the movie is still interesting on many levels. My most vivid memories from seeing it many times in my youth, are the scenes where Anthony Perkins gets killed, which is way less disturbing than I remembered, and battle in the greenhouse, which was actually cooler that I remember. I still love the double barrel guns they use.

While doing chores and whatnot, we watched (on cable) The Devil's Advocate, one of the more stomachable of Keanu's pre-Matrix roles, and Pretty Woman, (wife's choice, natch.) a movie I realized would never work if made today. Or if they did make it today, it would have to be Julia Robert's first day as a prostitute rather than having been one for some time. You can't have a hooker as a likable character any more. Actually, now that I think about it, it didn't really work then either.

Then I finally watched Transformers. Way better than I thought it was going to be. This is due to a number of things. First, Shia LaBeouf is a much better actor than anybody, especially Michael Bay, realized. Second, Optimus Prime having the same voice was brilliant. Third, the way the bots transformed was just friggin' awesome. Also, the show-stealing cameos made the movie. John Turturro and Bernie Mack were both awesome. And before you say or think it: Plot, Schmot! These are Transformers, fer cryin' out loud. Now where's my Go-Bots movie?

I also watched Dawn of the Dead again. Crap-ola I love that movie. Snyder is a genious in his own little way. He will do great things with Watchmen.

In other news, this guy ---->

and I are going to Denver this week. He is very excited to go on a plane, even though he has done so twice already in his short life. And a cruise ship. He keeps telling anyone who will listen that he's going on an airplane on Wednesday.

I am... anxious to say the least. Jen can't come because she's too pregnant, so it will just be the two of us in the thick of holiday travel season. Wish me luck.

-JP

Holee Molee it's windy.

This must be how Chicago feels when it's really windy. Or anywhere else where it is really windy. It doesn't have to be Chicago, I guess.
Is Thanksgiving really next week? How did that happen? For all you Denverites, I will be in the bid D Wednesday night until Saturday afternoon of said Thanksgiving week.
We should hang. Maybe Friday night, we could get some Chinese because I'll be sick to death of American food by then. Then the drinking. A trip to Denver is not complete until you enter a plane or car to go home, and you are completely hung-over, sleep deprived, and cranky.
Anything fun going on these days? I am anxiously awaiting the Winter season. I realize that it has been winter for some time for a lot of you, but dammit, I haven't seen hide nor hair of Mr. Frost. It was 73° yesterday and sunny and I had to take my hoodie off during my walk with Jackson around our new neighborhood. This is not winter.
We are all moved in, and warm and happy in the new house. Jack loves it and the dogs don't give a shit unless you have food.
Unfortunately, being moved in means I will soon have to turn my attention to a bunch of projects that I have been putting off due to either my homelessness or my using my homelessness as an excuse to procrastinate.
These include:
-The Boxing poster of Eloi vs Morlocks I've had in my head forever
-The caricature of of a famous news pundit and his daughter I said I would do months ago
-The DVD cover and inserts for The Evildoers press packet that is way over due
-Updates to NGV5, six months late (and zombies are out of style now)
-A painting/assemblage for my in-laws foyer
-Framing a bunch of original art I've collected over the years
-Finishing the design of the tattoo I want, and then actually going to get it (maybe I'll do that in Denver hmmm...)

There is probably a lot more that I have forgotten about, or cannot recall at the moment. Work work work. I need to start using my down time at work to advance some of these causes.

Any help would be appreciated.

-JP

Happy Halloween from...

Mua HA HA!

I got my cat back.

And a big thanks to Leslie for cat-sitting for the last month or so. She seems to not really give a shit about the house, which is fine. It's the mark of a well-adjusted cat. I heard a great quote somewhere once: A house can be a home if there is no cat, but how would it know?
Most of our stuff is moved in except for us. We just had to go and move right close to a holiday, and our favorite one at that. Lots to do around Halloween when you have a kiddie.
Last night we went to the Zoo, with B&G, who brought Gavin, and Carissa & Brianna (sp?). We had a great time, an more importantly, the kiddos had a great time. The Zoo is fun. It marked the first time Jackson has had a large amount of candy all at once. It also marked the first time he crashed and fell into a sleep that could rival some comas out there. I expected him to have a long white beard when he woke up. But alas, he woke up at 6:00, rearin' to go. Next week will be better. Daylight savings will have taken effect, and he will appear to wake up at a proper hour.

In other news:
I really don't have any other news.

-JP

Homo(ner) Again!

We closed on our new house today! It is a bit far out into the 'burbs for my taste but it is also a bit big and new and still under warranty for in-town, so whatcha gonna do? The guy who owned it before us was a contractor which worked to our extreme advantage in two ways. 1) He did a massive amount of updates to the house, and he did them WELL. 2) We got way more bang for our buck, as it were, when they agreed to pay up to a thousand dollars worth of repairs needed per the home inspection, because he did them himself, and saved on labor, meaning more repairs. Rawk for us.
So we will finally be out of the In-laws house. They are great, wonderful, giving people but I am ready to leave. I am ready to have my own space.
I will miss Norm and his weird OCD quirks, though. Like how the trash gets picked up on Tuesday morning around 9am, yet we have to gather up all our trash on Sunday because he places the trash out at 7am Monday. Or how he believes that our dog's urine contains miracle plant-growth properties, because there are random spots in the back yard that grow a little greener than the rest of the lawn. Miracle dog urine is the ONLY explanation, he says. I suggested aliens, but he said I was full of shit. Or how he's on that awesome drug that makes everybody quit smoking, and readily admits that the actual craving to smoke is long gone, but he still smokes about a pack a day. And takes the extremely expensive drugs to quit smoking at exactly 7:00pm every day, because "They don't work otherwise". Or how even though he goes through a $10.00 "mega-pack" of beef jerky each and every day, he'll drive to a completely different wal-mart if the one in Sapulpa only has the smaller, and thus somehow gayer, "mighty-pack", which he won't buy because "That's just throwin' your money away".
What I won't miss is the uncanny ability he has to magically be standing where ever I happen to need to be. Or how he'll eat more of Jackson's food off of Jackson's plate than Jackson does, causing me to make a second batch of whatever it was that I made. This after I, not 15 minutes ago, offered to make extra so he could have some, to which he always answers no. When he says yes, it's actually worse because he'll stand over me, telling me how to cook microwave bacon properly, which I can't do because he's standing in front of the microwave. And, of course, how he's always up in my shit.
The good FAR outweighs the bad, however, and given some of the relationships I've seen with in-laws over the years, I have one of the very best. They have given me and my family a roof over our heads rent-free for several months, and their hospitality is more generous than I would have ever guessed.
Now I have to get the fuck out.


That is all.

In Rainbows...

So my good friend Sarah has this post, in which she asks weather or not Radiohead ripped her off in some weird dollar to Euros and/or hidden fees fiasco when she bought their new album. My friend Brandon had a similar problem, and he figured out that since Radiohead were in England, they were using pounds instead of Euros, or the other way around or something, and yes, his transaction was a little higher than he expected. But he still got the album, and he got it for cheaper than he would have in a store or on itunes, so he's okay with that. It's all about the art, right?

Now, I didn't have those problems because I got it off a friend from work, so I really didn't pay anything for it. I think it was all an elaborate marketing ploy, but it worked. People seemed to love the concept. I know it did, and I had every intention of buying it. I was going to give them about $10.00, but when a guy at work waltzes up with the thing on a flash drive, what are you gonna do? I am weak willed, everybody knows that.
On to the album: I love it.
OK Computer is arguably one of the best albums ever made ever, and is the benchmark I use for all other Radiohead albums. Kid A was close. Amnesiac a little further away. Hail to the Thief and The Eraser were complete let downs. I don't hate them, but When I have OK Computer and Kid A sitting there in the same pile, I'm gonna reach for one of them. I do the same thing with The Pixies. Bossanova and Trompe LaMode always take a back seat to Doolittle and Surfer Rosa.
In Rainbows, especially when compaired to The Eraser, really lets you know that Radiohead is a group effort, and not the All Thom Yorke Show, unlike some bands like The Cure or Coldplay*. The mellow, guitar-driven tracks are like seeing an old friend, back to their usual self after getting out of rehab. And I an sure Phil Selway is happy to be able to actually drum again.
They keep the ethereal, psychedelic aspects that remind me of bands like Tones on Tail and Galaxie 500, back in the '80s, and are what made Radiohead great, like a rock band conceived completely under water. And there are some solid lyrics in there. All in all, I think they are back on the right track, and I'm happy for it.

In Geek News:

Wil Wheaton is interviewed for BoingBoingTV:



He goes into a nostalgic narrative, summarizing a story he's written for his new book, about that time in many of our young nerdy lives, when we had our allowance in our hands and found ourselves staring up at the wall of action figures at the local K-Mart (back before they were ghetto), trying to decide weather to save our cash for something big like the Millenium Falcon, or to go ahead and get the instant gratification of holding Greedo in our hands right then and there. I have to say that he hit the nail on the head with that one, and this was something my brother and I struggled with every weekend of our lives until we discovered girls.
I was always the saver, my brother the spend it now type, and I would hold that over him every chance I got. Like when I pulled out some Halloween candy sometime after thanksgiving, or when I bought a rare back issue of Groo the Wanderer that one time. It made him furious. He ended up stealing a good portion of stuff from me over the years because he just couldn't stand it. We are still like that to a certain extent. I can't wait to get a copy of Wil's book.


That is all.

-JP





*Let it be known that I cannot stand Coldplay. Overrated and dumb.

Just like everybody else does....

Things like this make me happy that the interwebs exist.

You know what else makes me happy the interwebs exist? My friend Joey has a radio show that broadcasts from a public radio station in Austin. He has a Jazz show on Wednesdays, but on Friday nights he has a goth, industrial, new wave show that is as awesome as they come. So I sitting here listening to the Smiths on my computer and i didn't put it on. YAY! He even gave me a little shout-out. Awww...


Jen failed the first test for gestational diabetes. SUCK. Now she has to eat this awful all-carb diet all weekend, and she gets to do another even nastier test next week. I hope she passes. The same thing happened with Jackson and she passed the second time so everybody cross your fingers.

In Geek news: The new Star Trek movie is getting cast with the best people ever so far. Oh, you want proof? They cast Simon Pegg as Scotty. Satisfied? I am. We also get Harold as Sulu and Sylar as Spock. Can't get much better.
Also, Captain America is back from the dead and he has some spiffy new duds.

Um... that's it.

Feuling My Silent Rage

So....
Jackson has a new thing. Well, actually 3 things. 1) He's been waking up in the middle of the night and not wanting to go back to sleep until we leave for school, and he gets a nice 30 minute nap while I get to dodge road raged South Tulsans. Sometimes he's visibly upset, and cries for while, but sometimes he's ready to party. Or wrestle a bear. Or go bungee jumping. 2) He has found his whine. This eluded him for some time, but now that he has it, he's decided to make up for lost time and whine loudly and with much feeling. About everything. 3) A natural progression from #s 1 and 2, he has decided to test the waters concerning the length and intensity of fits. Screaming and ranting and yelling for hours at a time. Last night he scored a hat-trick, and nailed all three. You have never seen anything more pathetic than your own kid crying at the top of his lungs in the dim light from the microwave in the wee hours wearing no pants or diaper, as he had torn them off in total frustration. All this adds up to me feeling a little more empathy with Alec Baldwin. I don't agree with what he did, not by a long shot, but I understand it. I'm cranky in the morning anyway, and adding an extra three hours to my morning is not a good idea. In a weird bit of coincidence, TAL did a story about just this phenomenon this week. I was happy to hear that Dan Savage was having the same problem. If we were in our own home it would be one thing, but we are still with the in-laws until the beginning of next month, and they invariably wake up and stick their noses in our business. They are just trying to help, I know, and they do, but sometimes I wish they would just shut their door and let us work it out.

In other news (about time, ya whiny bitch!)

Heroes is back, and although I do love it so, NBC has decided to add what seems like an extra 10 minutes of commercials to each episode. I actually timed it, and at one point there were 4 minutes of commercials, 4 minutes of show, and another 6 minutes of commercials. SIX! Get back to the show. I'm not buying a friggin' Swiffer!
I have given up on Bionic Woman and Journeyman. They failed to hook me. Journeyman will never be as cool as Quantum Leap was, and Bionic Woman makes me feel like I'm watching the actual '70s version, though unironically. Starbuck isn't even cool anymore.
The one new show I actually like, Reaper, is going strong, but I don't think it will last. Not OC enough for the CW, I think. Hopefully Sci-fi will pick it up, where it can live happily for years to come.

In still other news, we just had a river development plan here in Tulsa shot down. I have mixed feelings. I really think the city needs something like this, and though I am unsure if this particular plan was the best they could have come up with, at least it was something. The opposition was angry and fierce, and was mostly along the lines of "no more taxes" and "let's not give anymore power to the government" and "just use the money he already have more responsibly", and I can understand that. But now all bets are off and I have a sinking feeling that Tulsa will continue it's downward spiral to becoming a ghost town. I look at the river every day as I drive in and I keep thinking that there should be nothing but bike paths, Frisbee golfers and smoothie stores littering the banks, not old mattresses. But I'm used to Denver, I guess. I love Downtown Tulsa, I really do. If there were decent parks, some awesome condos, a good school, and a grocery store down there I would totally live there. But I guess I'm just used to Denver. I could go months with barely touching my car. I miss that feeling that the inhabitants of a city actually cared about it. I just don't get that here. I'm sure they do, and a lot of them will tell you that that is exactly why they voted down the river tax, but still. I've never been anywhere where the people seem to hate their own city so much. I think the river will get developed anyway. It will be slower and more at the hands of private entrepreneurs, but it's too good of an idea to ignore.

-JP

A few small things that made me smile...

First off, you know those girls you see in cars that are either really small and really expensive or really big and really expensive? They are usually wearing white framed sunglasses, look a little bored to be in the car, and are just way too attractive for their own good? You know those girls. They're everywhere. I saw one yesterday while waiting to cross the street, and she was digging out the biggest booger ever. Just swirlin' away up in there. She even checked her nose in the mirror, decided it wasn't booger free enough, and went back at it. I guess some people don't realize that glass is clear. I guess one could take small comfort in the fact that she made it to her destination with nasal passages free of obstruction.

Second, we may have found a house to buy yesterday. I don't want to get my hopes up because the other two times we went through the house buying process, we didn't get the first one we put an offer in on, and why should this time be any different? Still, the house is nice and the price is right, so I can't help but be a little excited. I missed out on the Smallville* premiere and ER to go look at that house and I am not one bit sorry for that.

Does anybody else think Jessica Alba has an odd skin tone? It isn't quite olive like most people of Latino descent, and it isn't quite white-girl-with-a-tan either. Not that it makes her any less attractive, mind you. Which, as the Nerd I am, I only realized once she started doing comic book movies.

The week of new shows has been pretty okay, I guess. Heroes was awesome as usual, though I don't think they can push it too far past two seasons. Twin Peaks taught us that the public can only take so much weirdness without a pay-off (I'm lookin' at YOU, Lost).Bionic Woman kind of sucked. The villain was way better than the heroine, and Miguel Ferrer needs to stop accepting the same role over and over again(He plays the same guy he played in Point of No Return and RoboCop, and a dozen other shows and movies). And it another in a new crop of shows that have British actors playing Americans, ala House. Bionic Woman, Life, Journeyman... All Brits. WTF, Mate? Reaper was awesome and funny and poorly edited and I hope it lasts past this season. We get the gift of Ray Wise, another RoboCop/Twin Peaks alumni, like Ferrer, ad the Devil, and he's fantastic. I missed a few I wanted to see that I'll have to catch in re-runs. Medium is back in January. I am very sad to see The Dresden Files wasn't picked up for a second season, and that Veronica Mars went bye-bye too. At least we get Kristen Bell on Heroes this season. She picked Heroes over Lost (suckers!).

Um... Now that I'm done geeking out. Jackson decided that 4:00 am was the time to get up and start playing today. So the wife and I had to get up too. He, however, got to konk out on the drive to school, where as I, did not. So I stopped for a massive coffee, or rather what I thought was going to be a massive coffee, and ended up being only a 16 oz coffee and they still charged me five bucks for it. Why do they call it a Latte? Because it costs a Latte, that's why. After working in the coffee industry all those years, I really hate paying for coffee now. I just feel somewhere in the back of my head that I shouldn't have to, I guess.



*Please don't tell me what happened, I am... aquiring it as we speak,.. um... write? whatever.

Forever in Flares

So tonight we had to go to the Sprint store for some service that the people on the phone told us we had to go into the store for, but the people at the store told us we had to call on. This dispute did not get resolved. Go fig.
We were hungry on our way there so we decided to hit the chick-fil-a, because they have a play area for toddlers. And we have a toddler who likes to play. In areas. Little did we know...(dramatic pause)... that they were having a "Fabulous 50's Night" to celebrate their 40Th anniversary. All the staff was dressed in what their parents, who were born in the late '60s, early '70s, told them people in the '50s dressed in. The Guys just put on paper hats and white aprons. They weren't trying too hard. People dressed as cows (the mascot of the place that serves chicken) greeted us from the corner and at the door wearing over-large Elvis style sunglasses. As was the Elvis impersonator.
There were a few things amiss about their party that Jen and I noticed right off the bat. 1) 40 years ago was 1967. 2) The Elvis impersonator they hired was dressed as the 70's Elvis, with a white jumpsuit(which was adorned with beads on both the tassels and the sash. But awkwardly. like Indian beads. only crappy). 3) Said Elvis impersonator was singing Neil Diamond songs.
He knocked them out of the park, though. Best Neil Diamond I've ever heard from an Elvis in a fast-food joint. The meal was yummy as always, and we got free brownies and root-beer floats.
Jack played happily in the play area. The slide was way more interesting than some dumb-ol' Elvis.

-JP

Two books that made me very nostalgic

So I have read two books in the last couple weeks. Both of which got me thinkin' about about my misfit high school days, though I would never in a million years want to return to those days (except maybe armed with my current brain).
The first was The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Gothgirl,* about a nerdy comic book obsessed freshman who hates his step-dad, is prone to migraines, stays up all night making comics because he is an insomniac, and is slowly falling in love with a Goth girl. I could have easily described myself that way when I was a freshman in high school. Anybody could have described me that way in high school. The main difference being that I had more than one friend and listened to better music. I could have easily turned into this kid were it not for an older brother and the fact that I met Joey randomly in the hall about a month into my freshman year, forging a life-long friendship, but more on that in a future post.
The Second was The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and I have to say that this is one of the best books I have ever read, and I have to give a huge shout-out to Ann for telling me about it. I read it in three 2-hour sittings. It has a very Catcher in the Rye feel to it, and that book is mentioned several time throughout the story. Told in a series of letters to an anonymous reader, the main character Charlie is going through his freshman year in the early 90's, and seems to be some sort of super-genius who can't deal with social situations very well. Kind of like the scientist who's assistant has to follow him around with a sandwich because he forgets to eat. That kind of guy. He befriends two of his classmates and goes down an interesting road filled with new experiences and a welling up of passion that Charlie just can't seem to give into. What made this book so special to me that the characters described were the same people I hung out with during the early '90s while I was in high school. I new these people and I had similar experiences and listened to the same music and I really identified with this poor kid who couldn't quite make himself do some of the things he really wanted to do.
Good books, both. They are quick reads as well, so check 'em out!

In other news:
I want to thank Jeffrey Rowland for this. PostSecret is pretty cool, but there is definitely a Degrassi Jr. High drama quality to it, and I think people just make shit up so they can see their silly postcard on the web. Don't they realize how flippin' easy it is to be on the web? You're reading this right? That's how easy it is.



JP: Out.


*If you like either of these, you can also check out The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl , about a girl who works in a coffeeshop and draws comics and gets to save the world for real from an otherworldly gun-slinger. Fun.