Motely Thoughts

As soon as we entered March, writer’s block hit me full force. Yes, I could start the 2008 book list, but I’ve been kind of lethargic about getting that category started; love it but not into it at the moment. It will come back, of course, and hopefully over the weekend, but for now you’ll have to do with randomness. The problem with my writing is that I’m not focused, so rather than focus on that, I’ll just randomly babble about the week.

• Friend L is starting to reach out to me after my period of imposed silence but I’ve yet to respond. She sent me a ridiculous video of an orangutan urinating in its own mouth (which is annoying itself since she knows that isn’t the type of humor I go for); she sent IP and me a card that said something about how the card is to make us smile or piss us off, whatever we prefer. The card, incidentally, showed up on a day I worked from home. Instead of opening it, I left it on the console table in our foyer. IP came home and opened it since it was also addressed to him. Friend L signed the card “Hope all is well.” IP evaluated said card and pronounced it a “please talk to me” card. Asking whether or not I would answer (since I suppose the ball’s technically in my court), I somewhat heatedly told IP that the problem was that she has no clue as to why I’m angry (though the heat wasn’t directed at poor IP). She’s still too self-involved to ask what’s wrong or even think she may have missed something. The cynical part of me thinks that I’ll be stuck on the phone listening to the gory details of her surgery while I simmer, my face a beet red as IP directs one of our many fans in my direction in order to keep cool. My grandmother died; say that you’re sorry!
• Funny line of the week: When realizing that I had neglected to take my nighttime dose of 1) an allergy pill and 2) a birth control pill, I exclaimed it out loud for IP to delight in. “Oh no,” he responded dryly as he fixed himself a snack, “you’ll be sneezing babies in no time.”
• I found out that I will indeed be headed back to the South Pacific this summer. Oh? You didn’t know I went to the South Pacific this past winter? Stay tuned for a post on it at some point. IP and I may or may not make this into a vacation; he could meet me in Hawaii after my stint on the U.S.-affiliated territory/country that I’ll be visiting.
• On Monday morning I had the hardest time getting out of the apartment. I returned first in order to change jackets — it was too warm for my winter jacket. I then had to return again in order to get my work ID, which I had left in my winter jacket’s pocket. By the time I left, IP was only a traffic light behind me (unlike you other sappy couples who must commute together every day, IP and I like to have our mornings to ourselves; we meet up in the evening in order to go the gym, so the romance isn’t completely dead, people).
• Find of the week has been Brian Vander Ark’s 2006 album Angel, Put Your Face On. For those of you who don’t know, Vander Ark was lead singer for the 90s group the Verve Pipe (think “The Freshmen” and “Photograph”). Vander Ark’s first solo album, Resurrection, was released in 2004. An excellent album that I’d been listening to again, I wondered if he had released anything since. Lo and behold, he had, with his newest, a self-titled album, just recently released. I haven’t purchased Brian Vander Ark just yet, but Angel, Put Your Face On was an excellent investment. He’s always been a superb songwriter and singer; the way that IP feels about Chris Cornell’s vocals is the way I feel about Brian Vander Ark’s. It doesn’t hurt that he’s from Michigan — a nice counter-balance to the musical horrors that are Kid Rock and Eminem. Favorites on the album are “Survival”, “Another Good Man”, “Too Good for This World”, “I Don’t Want To Be a Bother” . . . hell, all of them. You can have a listen at his website under the ”Albums | Listen” tab. (Side note and “The Freshmen” trivia: Older Brother A is quite fond of parodying lyrics and singing “we were only freshmen” as “we were eating fresh mints”; dorkily enough, I was a freshman at Michigan when this song came out—hyuck!)
• Speaking on indie musicians, we’ll be heading out for a night on the town to see Jonathan Coulton and Paul & Storm sing their unique brand of quirky and nerdy music. We may or may not stick around to get some merchandise and get it signed. I’m not much a fangirl and would be perfectly blasé about meeting them. I’d probably comment on the weather and ask where they got their t-shirts because I’d like to buy one for IP. IP would drag me away in embarrassment as I started to bore them with the details of my life as an event planner. IP and I are celebrating our sixth year together (I won’t make the seven months joke here; it’s funny, of course, but I can on occasion be serious); we have two anniversaries, with the “official” date being March 31, but six years ago today we connected. What better way to celebrate than to drink beer at the Birchmere and listen to Coulton (hopefully) sing the funny song we may dance to at our wedding?
• A running accomplishment was had this week! My running hasn’t exactly been top-notch lately, but I need to get serious if I’m going to run New York again this year. I’m holding off on confirming my guaranteed entry because I want to be absolutely sure I can stomach the training that I need to engage in come summer. This week was a nice milestone because I was able to run three days in a row, with the third day being my strongest run (read: fastest and longest) of the bunch. This may be the wall I needed to break to get my marathon training in gear (which should start in July).

And that’s it for now. Hopefully more writing to come over the weekend.