Open All Night

I am hanging out on the West Coast, back in my beloved Bay Area. miss_begoni and I have spent the last few days sorting through packing and storage and moving, etc. But in between I've had a chance to re-visit some old friends and some old haunts. 

Tomorrow, we are heading south to visit more friends and have some stress-free shenanigans. Despite the stress of moving, I am more relaxed here than I have been in about, oh, 18 months or so. 

Back home, my mom is doing well, and recovering from her zombie knee surgery. (She had to have a cadaver-tissue transplant during surgery). She walked three steps today! For the first time in 2.5 years. It is very exciting. :) 

And most exciting of all, we saw The Avengers tonight. Oh my. There are so many pretty people in it. Also, it was awesome. Also, elz, I am totally shipping a het couple for a change -- you should tell me things about how hot you find Hawkeye and the Black Widow. 

In short, California is awesome. I am excited to head see some more of it. And I am thrilled to be toting a miss_bego with me on a permanent basis. We are currently homeless, still, but we are working on it. 

Hi, LJ! How are you all? 

Hello! It has been yonks and yonks (last year!) since last we spoke, but I couldn't let our bonus day without at least saying hi, so hi!

How are things? I have been trying to keep up with my Flist, but I find myself spending a lot of my (admittedly limited) time in places like Twitter and Tumblr, where everything is bite-sized, but I do miss the community here on LJ. And I know that lots of other people are in the same boat I am but, sadly, I don't know where everyone has scattered to.  (Feel free to let me know in comments, please!) 

In other news, this has been a weirdly schizophrenic few months for me, but I am attempting to make life changes that will work in the long term, and to try to think beyond a time when I am still stuck here in this situation. 

Also, I am so sad to here that Patrick Stump is also having a rough time. In fact, I am both surprised and not at how very sad I am. 

Anyway, this is a totally pointless entry, beyond just a chance to say howdy. Howdy!

I am late, but I am determined. I have cards! I have stamps! (International ones, too!) I have pens in sassy colors!

And I have a lot of dumb, useless downtime, in doctors' offices, pharmacies and waiting rooms.

I want to send you a holiday card! No, really, I do!

Leave your name and address below in -- as John Green would say -- the doobley-do. Comments are screened.

If I already have your address, you are getting a card from me regardless. (Unless you don't want one, in which case feel free to tell me below and break my heart. No big.) Unless you have moved. Then you should give me your new address at once, because I need to update it.

I will write in tiny, incomprehensible script! (The nuns tried, really they did.) I will sign my real name and swear you to silence!

You know you want to. . .

Happy news! My VCF Chris has arrived in China and been united with her brand-new son.

It is the best of days. :)

Mom and baby are doing well. And his big sister is pretty excited, too. Although she is vastly disappointed by the fact that there were no ninjas in the Forbidden City, and that her mother would not let her walk the length of the Great Wall.

Thank you all for you lovely comments, as well. I will be answering ASAP, but I didn't want to let another day go by without posting something.

I am breaking my radio silence to say the happiest of birthdays to the most wonderful of ladies, 60schic! 


May it be filled with all good things! And lots of cake! 



Happy, Happy Birthday, Chic!!!!

First, to today's song:

Day 09: A Song That You Can Dance To:

I Don't Feel Like Dancing -- Scissor Sisters

It's like the Mary Poppin's lullaby Stay Awake. I dare you to listen and not want to shake a tail feather.

Also, I have no dancing icons. This is tragic. TRAGIC.

Speaking of dancing. I have a lot of FEELINGS about the dancing show, but this has been the longest day, oh my God, and I am about to collapse.

In the meantime, I am plotting ways to see movies this weekend.

Heh. As anyone who has ever driven with me in northern California can attest:

Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" -- Dionne Warwick.

I will not lie. I love Burt Bacharach unironically.

Also, White Collar and Covert Affairs return! I really liked both premieres an awful lot. Thoughts?

I have no UK icons!

Sally MacLennane




This song will always make me think of Trafalgar Square, London, when I was 16 and on my class trip, which was my first trip overseas. I don't think that I can explain clearly enough the ways in which my friend Maurie's cassette copy of Rum, Sodomy and the Lash -- heard through one earphone of a crappy Walkmen while crouched in one corner of Lord Nelson's column -- blew my Catholic schoolgirl mind. It was Irish music! That was also punk rock! It sounded unlike anything else I'd ever heard, and every time I hear this song, I remember that moment.

In my defense, I was totally watching a really bad movie with my dad last night, so there's that.

Instead, you get a twofer.

( DAY 04: A Song That Makes You Sad )


( DAY 05: A Song That Reminds You Of Someone )

Alex Chilton by The Replacements.

This song is everything you want out of a happy three-minute experience -- exuberance! jangly guitars! -- with an added bonus of managing to wrap up that feeling of falling in love to music -- and with music -- at that seminal moment in your life.

It makes me grin every time I hear it.

Also, The Replacements! What's not to love?