I like the song on the Volvo commercial with the ethereal-looking woman wearing a white dress. It’s by this Swedish guy named Melpo Mene. 

this week i’ve been sort of living in a fog. For some reason I haven’t been able to get a decent night’s sleep. Last night was the best of the last three nights, because I convinced myself that it was ok to use alcohol to help me sleep. So, I bought a bottle of champagne and had it with dinner. I feel good about this decision, because I was asleep before 10:00 p.m. I feel slightly regretful, because I woke up around 1:00 a.m. completely sober and couldn’t get back to sleep until around 3:00 a.m. Overall, those hours between 10 and 1 am made it so worth it. I promised myself that this was a one-time deal. I am overly conscious of my drinking, which is funny to me because I rarely drink.

I am not sure what has happened to me this week, although I have some ideas. The editor is out this week so things are kind of nuts at work. I moved my bedroom into the smaller, greener room. It’s more peaceful back there, but I think I’m still getting used to the new vibe. I also think that the air conditioner in that room is a bit louder than the one in the other bedroom. My new plan of attack is to cool that room down before I go to bed and then turn off the air conditioner when I’m ready for sleep. If that doesn’t work I’ll have to ask Matt to swap the air conditioners. I don’t want it to come to this, though.

But do you know that feeling of sleeplessness? Of your mind racing with all of the thoughts of things you have to do? Or you are willing yourself to relax, which just makes it worse because you’re just reminded that you’re very much NOT relaxed.

Wow, an AT&T commercial with Mates of State. How weird!

The past few weekends have been full. earlier in the month, Matt and I went to Pennsylvania and did all of the things we set out to do. I have to say that my favorite was riding our bikes around my hometown. It was nice to see Palmyra on a bicycle. What a nice place to have grown up I’ve decided. And last weekend matt played a show in Brooklyn and then we stayed at his grandma’s on long island. I beat them both at Scrabble. Twice. I’m just sayin’

In fewer than ten days my father will retire from his job that he has worked at as long as I have been alive and probably before that. Last time we talked, he said that he is going to get his house ready to sell. This is the house I grew up in. Many years ago I would have been sad about this, but I am grown up now and realize that nothing lives in perpetuity.

One thing I need to do, though, is get my piano out of that house. Back around Christmas when we talked about his retirement we made arrangements to split the cost of moving it up here to Massachusetts. Now that I have a house of my own, this is a plan that I can realistically carry out.

I can already see it in here. I have plenty of room and think it will help fill up this space quite nicely. I don’t know what else I’ll do with it. I know at least one person who can play it, and there are piano books in the bench that I can dust off and try out. I used to play when I was a teenager, but gave it up because I didn’t have the drive within myself to practice.

I don’t know why I’m blogging about this, but I am excited about having it back and then figuring out what it means to have it.

This morning my first mortgage payment was withdrawn from my bank account. All of my tenants are paying me on time and all is well on my corner.

What have I been up to. The highlight recently was seeing the Winterpills at Iron Horse last Saturday. Philip and Flora and Dennis and Dave and Brian created brilliant arrangements for the new songs and assembled a
distinguished and talented cast of guest appearances, culminating in an
amazing “Folded Cloth” closer. I brought some
friends along who didn’t really know a lot about the band and I hope
are now converts to the church of Winterpills.

Seriously, best band ever.

It’s been a month or so of lots and lots of changes as
many of you know. Not just the house but many other things. I’m not too keen on talking about my personal life, but as a newly single person, my focus
has been on remembering who I am, trying to have a good time and spend more time with friends. There have been some dark, lonely,
uncertain nights.
There have also been some great moments, like Winterpills night,
dark dining room night, Vietnamese food, the housewarming and so many more.

Presently, my goal is to save money towards getting the house electrical upgrade and work has been intense as we are covering high school basketball finals.

Blech, I’m getting so journaly.

We developed this local music radio player that streams songs from Western Mass. bands. You can get it by clicking the image below:

I like listening to it while I’m working. I have about 30 songs on there right now and am adding more daily.

I wrote a piece about a new musician at Hampshire College named Maesa Rae. I thought you might want to have your attention directed to it.

So….

I have been sewing. I have another skirt nearly done. It should have been done a long time ago, but I’ve been spending my time making handbags and daydreaming about fabric. I can’t show you any of the bags because they are all going to be gifted to some of the ladies who read this blog.

last night i went to diva’s in northampton. despite the fact that i’ve been living in western massachusetts since the 90s i had never been there and despite the fact that northampton claims to be a hotbed of activity but really doesn’t have enough places for one to get one’s groove on. What is with that, anyway? why don’t people in northampton dance anymore? Northampton is becoming Hyannis.

the company was good - we were celebrating the 28th birthday of a very special friend - but the music kind of sucked. either that or I don’t know how to dance in high heels. But really, how many times can you spin remixes of the pussycat dolls and still call yourself a DJ?

Anyway, Diva’s has goth night on Tuesdays which is supposed to be really good.

Last night we were talking about the origin of goth and I remarked that when I was in high school there was no such thing as goth kids. Anyone who walked around wearing doc martens and fishnets or heavy eye makeup was called punk. Anybody listening to death rock was also punk. Hey, my friends and I listened to Siouxie and the Banshees and The Cure, but nobody went around calling each other goth.

The wiki entry on goth confirms my belief that the term “goth” didn’t emerge as a way to describe a specific type of teen subculture in the states until the 90s, but J was right when he said that there was a genre of goth music in the 80s. Can you tell me where you went to school, what year you graduated and whether people were called goth in your school? I’m taking a poll.

I have to give props to Ash for training us on how to dance like a goth. Just pretend that you are massaging a really big ball with your hands.

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I was banging around some blogs today and found a link (at Tommy Devine) to a hip hop video filmed in Holyoke. For Springfield dwellers, here’s a more humorous Springfield rap.