“Red, red, wine.

Goes to my head”

From “Red, Red, Wine” by Bob Marley.

So, we spent Sunday afternoon with close friends who have just had a new baby.  We’d prepared food the evening before and had  a great time just chilling out, eating and talking over a meal – our respective families intertwining and celebrating the arrival of a new member.

Our friends had specifically got a bottle of red wine that they thought I’d appreciate. 

The text on the back read, “Duke “Big Kahuna” Kahanamoku is known as the father of surfing.  His surfing exhibition at Sydney’s Freshwater Beach on 23rd December 1914 was one of the most significant events in the development of the sport in Australia.  To this day, the best surfer on the beach can claim the title “The Big Kahuna”.

On Sunday I was that person, simply because I was the only one sat around the table who has ventured on a surfboard.  That aside, it still felt great!  

So, yes, the red wine did go to my head – but not in the way most people associate!

Ode to Ub40

So there I was getting the shark fin tamed yesterday in one of Soho’s uber-cool hairdressing establishments called B:Zar. It’s a curious place to get your hair cut, unless you speak Japanese, but through the aid of some ridiculous gesticulations and me mouthing the word, ‘S-H-A-R-K’ to my “Stylist”, Kayto, he smashed into my hair. As I sat there wondering how long it would take him this time, the music changed from the very pleasant Passion Pit to UB40’s ‘Red Red Wine’ and with that a tidal wave of emotions and feelings slapped me across my little brown face, and for the next 30 minutes I sat there, eyes closed absorbing to all the hits they have squeezed out over the years. For some reason I have little place in my heart for this little reggae band from the Midlands.

I think Graham, my step-father can be blamed for this.

Growing up in Worcester was pretty dry. Limited stimulus. There were fields and orchards near my old house, but there’s only so often that you can run around them before the farmers start to get pissed and try and hunt you down in the combine harvesters. Graham has always been into his Reggae music. A curious choice for 6ft 5ins white Scotsman, but who am I to judge. Just as I was beginning to form musical opinions and tastes he was thrust into my life and with it his music preferences. At the time I remember thinking, “Good God” this music stinks”. However, each Sunday we would do the garden together and blast UB40 out of the house and I would sing along whilst watching the G-man do his odd rocking-back-and-forth-fingers-dance. A difficult dance to describe and even more difficult movement to perfect whilst mowing the lawn, but then… he’s a pro. I also distinctly remember the occasion where he forced me to sing ‘I’ve got you babe” on my own at a Karaoke night, in front of a packed out assembly hall at his old school (where he was the headmaster). For most this would have been a cringe worthy experience, but being me … I rocked it. I must have been about 12 or so and it was one of the first occasions I consciously realised just how much I love an audience to perform in front of. Nothing much has changed… apart form the hair.

Hearing the back-cat of songs as the Soho Shark Fin took shape was a heart-warming experience. I guess the moral of this story is just that music has always been a greater marker for poignant moments , good and bad, in my life. Mowing the lawn listening to Birmingham’s finest may not strike you as particularly interesting, those lazy Sundays had a remarkable effect upon me. We even named our pet African Grey parrot … UB.

This was my mini-love letter to the band and a mini-thanks to Graham, so for now I’ll leave you with a slightly more recent classic featuring Pato Banton, ‘Baby Come Back’ Enjoy.

Like this? Hate this? Twitter my ass.

A holiday that looks like it came out of the pages of a magazine- all sweaters and smiles and color coordinated trees. The latest gadgets and gizmos wrapped up in Martha like packaging. Sugar cookies that taste as good as they look. A bedroom circa 1950-vanity complete with perfume in pretty atomizers, face powder and hand mirror, a blush pink satin night gown and robe, and for my hair to get itself into those large waves without a fight. A mink stole. The idea of a mink stole. Pearl earrings. Decorations that buy and hang themselves. Long nails. A Cinderella-Father of The Bride-It’s A Wonderful Life-Breakfast At Tiffany’s movie marathon. The mud room of my old house. A maid who will also reorganize and de-clutter. The ability to be a morning person. A pair of running shoes and a pair of standing shoes. A jewelry cleaner. Charlotte York’s wardrobe. The invention of teleportation (come on already). An invitation to a New Year’s Ball similar to the one in When Harry Met Sally. To dive into Internet World-the place in my imagination where all the cool stuff/people/locations I drool over all hang out together without responsibility or any form of cash based economy and everything looks like a picture taken by Kyla or Wishy. A day back in fourth grade. Another four hours. Yoga with Doreen-my first and favorite yoga teacher who made us roar like lions. Silk stockings.  A full time job. A chandellier. Shapes Macaroni and Cheese. To find a four leaf clover.  Clark Gable, dressed to the nines, a floor length dress, champagne cocktails and the ability to get away with saying “Dahhling” all night long. A jar full of fireflies. A huge Godiva hot chocolate, an oatmeal cookie, and a day perusing Barnes and Nobles. A weekend in the mountains, bear skin rug, fireplace and The Boy. A wedding fairy godmother. This ad to become my life, complete with windows and white cotton underwear that actually looks sexy. Louboutins. A chocolate filled advent calendar. A honeymoon in Bora Bora. Wine.

What do you want?

01. Ali Baba – Duke Reid & John Holt
02. Singer Man – The Kingstonians
03. Israelites [single version] – Desmond Dekker & The Aces
04. Gangsters [live] – The Specials
05. No Raise No Praise – Derrick Morgan
06. My Boy Lollipop – Millie
07. Whine & Grine [radio version] – Prince Buster
08. Tears Of A Clown, The – The Beat
09. Blam Blam Fever – Valentines
10. Double Barrel – Dave & Ansel Collins
11. Everyday (Time Hard) [live] – The Selecter
12. Long Shot Kick De Bucket – Leslie Kong & The Pioneers
13. Fattie Fattie – Clancy Eccles
14. Ire Feelings (Leggo Skanga) – Rupie Edwards

Tracklist:
01. Too Much Too Young [radio edit] – The Specials
02. Monkey Man – The Maytals
03. Train To Skaville – The Ethiopians
04. Red Red Wine – Tony Tribe
05. One Step Beyond [radio edit] – Madness
06. Miss Jamaica – Jimmy Cliff
07. Liquidator, The – Harry J. Allstars
08. Funky Kingston – Toots & The Maytals
09. Carry Go Bring Come – Justin Hinds & The Dominoes
10. Pressure Drop – Toots & The Maytals
11. John Jones – Derrick Hariott & Rudy Mills
12. Three Minute Hero – The Selecter
13. Skinhead Moonstomp – Symarip

Unintentional, but cool: the red wine and chicken broth in my beef stew haven’t blended yet, and the two bay leaves complete a sort of yin/yang image.

The colors were much brighter in person, but I was trying to snap a quick photo without getting too much steam on the camera!

Yin + Yang = tasty broth.

Science Confirms Red Wine Clashes With Fish and Other News …
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Oh, school dances. TGOTS has already done a masterful job at capturing their oddities, at least in our neck of the woods, and I don’t have much intention of saying anything more. But occasionally a song will just shoot me back there — to the cringe-inducing awkwardness of stonewashed jeans and feathered bangs, the surge of energy when fast songs allowed a big group to dance together (um, “Red, Red Wine” being one of them, though in retrospect it’s not so fast), the whispered scandals about who was dancing with whom or even thinking of dancing with whom, the suddenly very important trips to the bathroom when a boy was about to ask you to slow dance — or when no boy was materializing and you couldn’t stand to hold up the wall much longer.

As for “Red, Red Wine,” I was sort of vaguely aware that the UB40 version was probably a cover, but it wasn’t until about five years ago that I learned — from my fella, source of much music wisdom — that the original was by Neil Diamond. Glorious, glorious day.

And speaking of red wine … it’s Friday at 5 p.m. I think I’ll go have some.

HE and SHE both say: This is a very special wine that we share with you.    Melville Winery is a favorite spot of ours.  Melville Winery is located in the Santa Rita Hills of Lompoc, California, in the Santa Ynez Valley.  Got all that?   Hills, Valley, Saints, California, Mediterranean architecture . . . traces of heaven, right?   We’ve had a bottle of 2005 Melville every August  for the last three years and every year it gets better.  Find some if you can.

Melville Winery

Do we have an ulterior motive?  Indeed we do.  We are sharing our joy with you.  2005 Melville wines were in the oak barrels Aug.  2006  when we celebrated our marriage with a wedding reception in the barrel room at Melville Winery.  There were only 30 of us, but it felt like 300 and  there was a ton of  love, joy, dancing, good karma and laughter seeping into the barrels and  “terroir” of Melville that day.  When the 2005 wines were released, we bought a case — half pinot noir, half syrah — with the idea that we’d drink a bottle each year to celebrate our anniversary.  When we decided we wanted to be married longer than 12 years, we went shopping for more.  Uh, oh.

Now, back to the 2005 Melville Estate Pinot Noir, Verna’s

SHE drank her 2005 Melville Pinot with perfectly grilled lamb chops (medium rare, thank you), mashed potatoes, roasted heirloom tomatoes with eggplant, and Parma ham with melon and figs.   HE drank his 2005 Melville Pinot with that same tremendous Parma ham, melon and fig appetizer — a pairing made in heaven — and veal saltimbocca topped with more Parma ham.  Simply delicious.

HE SAYS: This wine was unbelievably good. From the very first smell to the glory of that first taste, all the way to the last swallow, this wine was outstanding.  Beautiful color, with a lovely rose petal and violet scented nose, with a touch of mustiness.  In the mouth, a most delicious bowl of strawberries and cherries. Very soft and well balanced, a real treat.  We tasted this wine at Melville in May ‘07 and my notes say “tasty, nice body, good balance” — a respectable 14+ in my ratings.  No doubt the occasion and symbolism of the wine played a part, but this wine has grown up and developed into a seriously terrific wine.  It was truly one of the finest California or Oregon pinot noirs I have ever tasted.  It could be peaking now — gonna have to wait another year and see.  A thundering 18+!
SHE SAYS: Wow.  An 18+  Melville, are you reading?  I hope he describes me like that someday.  So to this lovely Pinot Noir, I say, “Mmmmmm. You are so sexy the way you sneak in and light my fire.  Thank you!”

HE SAYS: One more note on Melville wines — I generally prefer their main line from Verna’s for pinot and syrah versus their Santa Rita Hills and other single vineyard designations.  I find the fruit more forward and approachable in the Verna’s, which comes from their ranch in Los Alamos.  Regardless, they consistently make very nice wines and their winery setting is just gorgeous.  And if you’re in the neighborhood, be sure to check out Babcock right next door.  SHE SAYS: That is way too much information for me.  I just drink it.

HE and SHE both say: If you can find any 2005 Melville wines that were in the barrels that summer, we say pay whatever they want, just buy it!

Album NGEBUT Anna Mathovani yang ini diiringi oleh The Comets dbp Enteng Tanamal, dengan lagu Red Red Wine, All The World To Me dan lagu pilihan lainnya.

1. Red Red Wine
2. All The World To Me
3. Berpisah Untuk Bertemu
4. Kembang Plastik
5. Nasi Tuai
6. Penantian
7. Suratan Hidup

I wanted to share with you all this very random childhood story… as proof for my life-long soul/funk/blues obsession.

As a 5 year old child, I was eating with my parents at macaroni grill one time.  My parents look over and I’m grooving and dancing in my chair.  There was no real music playing in the restaurant either.  I was so into the song in my head, I started singing it out loud!!  ”Red… red…. wine… goes to my head…”  My dad tried to ’shush me,’ and I kept grooving away while singing “Red red wine, you make me feel so fine, you keep me rocking all of the time!”  They were looking around fearful that someone would hear what song their small child is singing!  I kept on going to the music in my head!  It must have been some good stuff!

what I made for dinner before you canceled at the last minute
1. beer bread with a spiced plum butter
2. green beans & artichoke heart salad with a balsamic dressing
3. bacon-studded turkey meatloaf with a tomato-red onion marmalade crust

on a more positive note, some songs I have decided I like lots
4. Nobody’s Sweetheart, Simon Wilcox
5. Walk in the Park, Little Brazil
6. To The Wire, Kris Delmhorst
7. Make It Hot, Mirah
8.  Pay Attention, The Eames Era
9. Broken In All the Right Places, I Am Jen
10. I’ll Meet You There, Owl City

song I recently decided I LOVE holy god yes
11. Flight 180, Bishop Allen

what I had for dinner, in the end
12. some leftover couscous
13. a handful of soy crisps
14. a rather large glass of chianti, sipped resentfully

yes, it’s true:
15.  . . . this is a little bit passive aggressive.
16.  . . . I am feeling slightly less neurotic about being away from home than I did before.
17.  . . . I am having trouble finding the right rhythm here.
18.  . . . I am still not sleeping well.
19.  . . . there are some things I find easy to blame on my sleeping problems; my occasional tendency to be seriously thin-skinned is one of them.

& then I ate a chocolate-covered nutter butter cookie
20. I did, & it was good.

El 20 de mayo del 2007, el diario británico The Independent publicaba un artículo en el que daba a conocer un ranking mundial de los mejores Summer Festivals de aquel año. En segunda posición se encontraba el Festival Jardins de Cap Roig que se celebra anualmente en Calella de Palafrugell durante el mes de julio y agosto. En un artículo del verano pasado, ya os hablé del festival y este año lo vuelvo hacer por tres razones. Primera, el lugar. Vuelvo a ensalzar la belleza del jardín botánico de Cap Roig, creado por el matrimonio Woedovsky en el año 1929 cuando se instalaron a vivir en este lugar idílico de la Costa Brava. Segunda, el cartel. Año tras año, la organización trae a un puñado de artistas de referencia nacional e internacional. Y tercera, la suerte de que este año podré asistir a uno de sus conciertos.

Jazz, músicas del mundo, ópera, reggae, danza, pop, ballet… son algunos de los registros que tienen cabida encima del escenario de este festival con vistas al mar. Los principales nombres de este 2009 son Miguel Bosé, Michael Bolton, UB40, Anastacia, Jamie Cullum, Raimon, Josep Carreras, James Taylor, Sara Baras, Luz Casal, Carlos Núñez, Julio Iglesias o Leonard Cohen. Mirar aquí el resto de artistas que conforman la programación. Leonard Cohen vendió todas las entradas en 4 horas y las de Miguel Bosé también se han agotado.

UB40

Por mi parte, el 11 de julio asistiré al concierto de la veterana banda de reggae y dub UB40, formada por ocho componentes que se conocen desde la infancia y que vivían en uno de los barrios obreros de Birmingham. Su historia empieza gracias a una indemnización por una pelea de uno de los integrantes del grupo, con la que consiguen comprar sus primeros instrumentos. Lo más curioso del caso es que algunos de los componentes de la banda nunca antes habían tocado algún instrumento hasta ese momento. De este peculiar modo empezaron y los éxitos no tardaron en llegar por increíbles que parezcan sus inicios. Su primer disco se lanzó en el año 80 y la gloria les llegó de la mano de su sonado tema Red red wine en el 84. Desde entonces no han parado: el año pasado sacaron al mercado un nuevo álbum llamado Twenty Four Seven y este año están de gira por Europa. Incombustibles.

Os dejo con I got you babe.

Miquel Cornellà de la Cruz

Blir inget gym idag – en prommis runt sjön får duga.
Bessie har sin snygga pirat-tröjja (jag och hon är pirater for real ^^ matte tom röstade piratpartiet sist…) och jag matchar läppstiftet med snyggaste röda kepsen från TopShop (TopMan om man ska vara riktigt noga).

Blev lite nytt smink i gbg igår – lägger upp ett inlägg om det senare. Funderar på att lägga till en “favoriter i sminkväskan”-kategori oxå… Låter det bra i era öron?

1. Learn of situation.
2. Shock.
3. Shock.
4. Shock
5. Tears start.
6. Enter worst case scenario mood.
7. Cry.
8. Let the cable guys in. Bullshit about I Love Lucy and Master’s degrees. Call Fiance about cable related question.
9. Tell Fiance “something bad has happened.”
10. End up telling Fiance the entire story over the phone with the cable men in the next room. 11. Try and keep it together so as not to appear completely crazy.
12. Hang up with Fiance and wave goodbye to cable men.
13. Imagination goes crazy. Heart races. Tears start. Pacing around house commences.
14. Fiance comes home.
15. Hug. Cry. Hug. Cry. Fiance says, “it’s ok.”
16. Think, “No, it’s not. It’s not even a little bit ok.” Cry more. Hug Fiance.
17. Regain composure.
18. Repeat steps 13, 15-17 every two hours.
19. Get text messages from one parent.
20. Cry.
21. Fiance attempts to look on the brighter side, the optimistic “maybe it’s not true” side.
22. Dismiss his notions. Damage has been done already, no matter what the facts are.
23. Repeat steps 19 and 20.
24. Buy a dryer at a yard sale for $5. Move in Fiance’s TV, enjoy having cable.
25. Repeat steps 13, 15-17. 26. Get phone call from parent. Manage to hold it together through conversation.
27. Call other parent.
28. Yell.
29. Scream.
30. Threaten.
31. Cry.
32. Hang up.
33. Hug fiancé and cry.
34. Open bottle of wine.Bake pizza.
35. Burn arm. Open better, non-grapey bottle of wine.
36. Consume pizza and entire bottle of wine.
37. Watch Beetle Juice and Corpse Bride.
38. Twitter.
39. Drag self upstairs and fall asleep.
40. Repeat steps 13-20 intermittently through Sunday.
41. Watch Angels and Demons.
42. Go to bed. Repeat steps 13-20.
43. Fall asleep.
44.Wake up.
45. Blog.

This is where I am.

Dear Universe,
Hi. We’re friends, right? I mean, for the past few months I’ve been getting lovely little “Notes” from you in my inbox every morning and you tell me I’m pretty and “awesome” and that closing doors will open windows and what not. Well, Universe, how about letting me look in the mirror without cringing and unlocking some damn doors? You’re all talk, Universe. I dig down into myself to try and put as much belief into you as I can muster. I try and let your truth and light wash over me like a wave and accept that I am in control of my own destiny. I try to envision that my chakras are purple and my aura just needs to be  a little more glowy and I’ll have the life I’ve always imagined. Well, Universe? I’m a rainbow of glowy gorgeousness and yet, I still don’t have a JOB. Food costs money, Universe. Some of us can’t survive on happy thoughts and unicorns alone. Though I’m sure unicorns taste AMAZING.
Waiting for the door to open,
Going On Two Weeks Without A Job*

Dear Jillian Michaels,
Thank you for making me feel productive on the days I’ve done nothing but scour the interweb for jobs and washed dishes. Without you my life would be eerily similar to that of a 1950’s housewife. I actually caught myself pacing in the living room awaiting The Boy’s arrival yesterday; wearing a trail in the floor between the window and the stove, because, yes, dinner was done and I was waiting on him. Add pearls, heels, and a few house plants and you’d have June Cleaver in the flesh. But Jillian, you give me 20 minutes where I feel kickass (or where I have my ass kicked, both are correct) and endorphins to last me through the afternoon. For that I commend you. Now, if you could just talk to my brain and remind it that fries and ice cream are not food groups my body would be bangin’.
See you at 3:30, as usual,
Shaba

Dear Yard,
I will make you grow pretty flowers and vegetables if it kills me. My black thumb will be green, dammit.
Love,
The Crazy Lady With The Rake

Dear Bloggy Friends,
You should email me. And send me your facebook info. So we can be real life friends.
You should also move to Southern Virginia so we can hang out.
And you should find me the perfect job.
The Perfect Job includes the following: Writing, never having to call anyone ever, copious amounts of wine drinking, cookies, social media, shoes, and a five figure salary. We’ll work together and laugh and laugh and drink wine and laugh and take many a’pictures of ourselves to post on our blogs and make everyone jealous and laugh some more. It’ll be good times.

Ready?
Go.

Love,
Shaba

*I have two interviews to be scheduled so it’s not completely disheartening yet, but I want offers, dammit.

I went to the concert to see them last night.  They played at the House of Blues(HOB)  TOO FUN!  I went with my big sister and we had a great time, ate dinner beforehand and then headed up to the third floor where the venue was.  The band played great.  They have a fairly new album out and played a couple tracks of that.  They also played the ever popular “Red, Red Wine” about half way through the show.  They also played “Here I am baby” early in the set and then closed out with a final stage call with “Fools Rush In” a classic remake originally performed by Elvis.

So, all day long today I have been singing their songs in my head and jamming along.  It was so cool to be there and enjoy the evening and my sis had a great time too!

piele lacuita rosie.

35 lei

It’s an exciting evening here in webie world.  I came across a picture today during my frantic search for a photo of an ice cream cake gone wrong (it really is hilarious – and once I find it I will most definitely be sharing it) and my find is your fun!

RUN STUPID!!

There are so many things wrong with this picture it was hard for me to know where to begin so I won’t put these into any specific order — you all be the judge of what takes the cake.  HAHAHA!  Cake.  See how I tied all of that together?  Damn I’m goooooood.

- No, that is NOT a hat on my head…that is indeed my HAIR.  It’s no wonder I was never asked to the 7th grade dance looking all jacked up like this.  Did I really believe I deserved to be?  Good grief.  This photo is hard proof that Ogilve home perms should never be sold to anyone who intends to give one at home.  Some things are best left to actual professionals.  I’m thinking of starting a petition to keep these items (and their offending ultra-small spiral rollers) behind locked cabinets at retailers nationwide.  I’m all about saving some young girl, or boy…whatever, the pain and humiliation I felt back in those tender years and ensuring that condom manufactures have a life in sales due to more teen sex.  HAHA!  A lift.  I did it again!

- I’m almost certain that a savage rabies-infested beast is barreling towards me and not only am I not aware of it, whoever is snapping this photograph didn’t bother to yell “LOOK OUT!”.  Further proof that I was not loved enough as a child and evidence supporting why this blog exists today.

- The Count on Sesame Street was always one of my favorite characters – until the Cookie Monster Pimp came along – but I didn’t realize I took it so literally until feasting my eyes on this oh-so-bitchin’ half caped jacket.  What makes it even more vomit inducing is the fact that I was indeed attempting to be fashionable judging by the circa 1983 trend of “red, red wine” as the fabric color.

- The sheer volume of snow on the ground goes without having to explain.  It’s just miserable and wrong.  “I’m never living above the Mason-Dixon line again” wrong.  That’s pretty wrong.

For those of you out there who know me well enough, I know what you’re thinking.  Geez..why is Kelsey so hard on herself?  Doesn’t she ever have anything good to say?  Just for you…I have decided to include a positive comment on this photograph.  Shocking, I know.

- It appears from what I can see not covered by said awesome jacket that I was in a not-so-fat-phase in life when this picture was taken.  FTW!

*Thanks mom and dad for keeping little treasures like these.  Your words of “you’ll be happy to have them on day…” were fulfilled.

I owe so many people stories about South by Southwest (if you don’t know what SXSW is, kill yourself) I’m starting to think I should just print out the million text messages I must have sent to get some kind of comprehensive account of what the fuck just happened in the past week.

sxsw remnants. giant cup of dr pepper from whataburger optional.

As Marco mentioned, Bruce Sterling had his annual talk (his legendary post party was supposedly canceled) at SXSW Interactive. Yeah, you know who else had a talk at the conference? Me. And guess what this bitch got? A mainstream news mention. Which means… you will never hear from me again. I’m moving on to the big leagues. Now we sip champagne when we thirsty.

when you're very important, you get giant pieces of paper with your name on it.

The best party at SXSW was the Gawker invite-only party, where they served theme drinks based on all the Gawker media properties (red wine for Jezebel, a screwdriver for Lifehacker, and a Manhattan for Gawker, etc). The second best party was the RVIPLounge, a party that came out of my dreams and into reality. It was a moving karaoke RV with cheap tequila and wine on board.

I lost two items of sentimental value and most of my dignity as I harassed an Internet celebrity who’s online clique I used to worship (uber.nu for the old school dorks) and then went on to berate the founder of a new location based iPhone app we were all using that gives you fake badges for the amount of times you announce your location. I asked if I could just cheat and get the badges anyway and he was upset that I was pissing on all his hard work. I never did get the Slut badge (which you get for checking into three hotels in one night) but I did get the Redford badge for attending film screenings, like one of Creative Non-Fiction directed by a fellow Oberlin College survivor.

One of the films I saw was a short called Coffee, about a woman just trying to get a cup of the tasty nectar of the gods.  It starred Amy Locane, who you may remember as being from Melrose Place. At least I did. Her transition from TV actress to starring in a short film at an independent film festival is intriguing. How did she get here? The short was kind of perfect because it was just a moment in time, but it had a clear beginning, middle and ending. It was just enough of the character.

Don’t ask me about SXSW Music because I’m still flaggelating myself for not upgrading my badge when I had the chance and missing the chance to see Third Eye Blind and get even more free drinks. Instead, I kicked it with the anti SXSW festival of free shows in Austin. One was an acoustic show at a dirt parking lot where I imbibed on Barefoot Cellars Pinot Grigio. Because the 7-11 we stopped at was too classy to carry Sparks. I did get to catch Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, an old college favorite, who was playing a free show across from the dirt parking lot show at an old man dive bar that only served two kinds of beer. Here, have a dance party break:

In numbers, let’s put it this way. Number of Julia Allison sightings: two. Number of real celebrity sightings: just one, of Dave Navarro in the airport. Number of times consumed things covered in smothered cheese: every time. Number of times I consumed barbecue: 4. Is it a nerd spring break? Yes. Is it filled with marketing wankers who want to monetize the Internet? Totally. Is it also filled with people rambling on about their shitty band and trying to get their film picked up? Uh huh. But you know what? The haters can hate and the jealous ones can envy. The reality is that this one of the highest concentrations of pure awesomeoness (and smoked meats) in one location and that is a beautiful, gorgeous thing. So South By, I can’t wait to see you next year, where we we can drink tequila at 1pm and lick barbecue sauce off of each other’s fingers before exchanging business cards.

portrait of the author wearing her most prized sxsw accesory: her gold badge

Do you know that feeling you get when you realize a task will take much longer than you anticipated? Or that you completely underestimated the amount of studying you needed to do for an exam? That heart-racing panic you feel when every cell in your body catches up to your brain’s “Oh Shit!” signals?

Welcome to my life.

I have about eleventy trillion due dates and deadlines currently. Presentations, papers, and tests. Resumes, cover letters, roommate issues. Graduation, moving, deciding when I should quit my job. Everything requires some of my time and attention. Luckily, I have a handy dandy planner that’s been gathering dust next to the baguette crumbs in my purse. I’ve since formulated a plan and the panic has subsided, at least for now. Because it’s one thing to write in “Write 3 pages of final paper” under Wednesday and an entirely different thing to actually complete that task.

However when the options are a) do it or b) fail. Well, really, who chooses b?Certainly not type A-minus’s like me. You know, A-minus, like Type A but not so scary. I want things done, and I want to be among the best, but I not going to scream at you if you’re ten minutes late. I’m not going to recheck my answers three times. I’m Type A-light, if you will.
And because of this, I refuse to let my school deadlines get in the way of my happy-go-lucky weekend and my favorite approaching holiday .

This afternoon I’m joining my college mentor and much-older-sister-I-never-had for walking, wine and popcorn. Then it’s back to SmallTown for a rendezvous with my best friend, before hanging out with my parents and awaiting The Boy’s arrival for a 5 day love-filled extravaganza!*

I hope your Friday is fantastic!

*I have been told this will not include a proposal. However, I’m no longer “in the loop” so I’m not entirely certain it’s the truth.

**When TGIF was still THE thing to do on Friday nights I swore the jingle sounded like “figi island” not TGIF. No one else agrees, but I stand by my misheard song lyrics!

5 boxes packed
2 glasses of a good malbec
cd no.1 of his mix
1 episode of savage lovecast
1 lovely flurry of texts
1 peculiar flurry of texts
bloom, hibernate, bloom
several dreams: forthcoming