I know, I know...

...it's been ages since my last update! Sorry, my loving readers, I've been preoccupied. I'll briefly comment on the more interesting events of the past week or so.

The Aristocrats plus drinking with the gang: Fantastic! Laughed my ass off. Pretty sure Natasha was scarred for life by Bob Saget. Drinking was insane, as usual. I found out that every now and then, I turn into a ridiculous compulsive liar.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, Grand Buffet and Magnolia Electric Co. show with Tom: was a bloody good time. I knew the first band would be great, I'm a big fan. You could really tell they loved playing. Grand Buffet was absolutely hilarious (I especially loved the part where they blamed Dave Matthews for ALL of South Africa's problems). And Magnolia was quite good as well. You can see Tom's blog for a more detailed synopsis.

Wine bar in my room last Friday: Olivia came down and Kamins moved in - so that was nice. Kate and Jeff joined us for arse-loads of alcohol plus a game of drunk Jenga, which led to some pretty crazy stuff (and also some pretty crazy pics - hopefully those will be up soon).

Cousin's wedding on Saturday: Typical family wedding - although I didn't drink (due to my intense hangover), inebriation abounded and wackiness ensued. Left a bit early, but heard that my uncle and (male) cousin did a striptease to Nelly's Hot in Here and then danced sexily (and I use that word very loosely) with eachother, to the delight of the dj and all of the guests. Love my family.

That's the short of it all, anyway. I'll post more soonish. Best wishes for a splendid end to each of your summers. XOXOXOX

...more likely to buy SUVs...

This is such an amusing study and the results do not surprise me at all.

Music Music Music!!!

New Death Cab album = AWESOME!!!!!

Men Women & Children show = Dance-tastic!

Sufjan Stevens album = Beautiful to the max!

I'm at work, so I'm going for brevity. It works, no?

Songs to download:
"Summer Skin" Death Cab for Cutie
"Stop!" Erasure
"Seven Nation Army" Nostalgia 77 feat. Alice Russell
"Dear Scene, I Wish I Were Deaf" Nightmare of You
"Marching Bands of Manhattan" Death Cab for Cutie
"Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" Bob Dylan
"Get Big" Okkervil River
"People Are Strange" The Doors
"Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, IL" Sufjan Stevens
"Debra" Beck

Speaking of Beck - - - www.acrossthenarrows.com

E-mail me or comment if you want to go. I want to go so bad. I can taste the desire. Oh, the anticipation. Shivers.

Cautious

Check this shit out.

This could go so wrong in so many ways. Pray for Kerouac's ghost that they manage to squeak out something brilliant. How can you take a book that good and expect to meet the quality on the screen? I don't know how I feel about this. That's a lie. I do know. Cautious and a little sad. I hope I'm proven wrong, but some books, I feel, just aren't meant to be movies.

Pretty mommy by the Garden Railway.

Those are my gigantic devil horns. I'm a bad, bad girl.

I'm going to attack your tiny tiny village!

My mom as Tree Woman.

Blarneys, Mum, and Oompa Loompas (sp?)

It seems like Sunday. Genuinely. But, fortunately, it is only Saturday. Perhaps that's one reason I'm not in the mood to party. I feel that my body honestly believes that it is Sunday. Ah well. My weekend started on Thursday, so I suppose some R&R is probably in order.

Recap:

Thursday night we all went out to celebrate Natasha's last day of classes for her first summer session as a working woman. She handled her 2 1/2 drinks brilliantly - which, for Tash, means she got smashed. I believe that paucity was involved. It was my first trip to the Blarney Stone (I've actually kissed the real Blarney Stone!), a well known campus watering hole. 50 cent drinks and lots of cute boys contributed to one hell of a night. I think all who were present feel the same. I had the delight of talking to one particularly attractive specimen (Justine, I believe you received a call). I, naturally, had more than 2 drinks. =)

Friday, after work, my mom came to visit. I had missed her a lot so I was really looking forward to spending the weekend with her. We went out to Mixto, which was on Antique Row and which I highly recommend. The Latin fare was excellent and the prices quite reasonable. We then headed to Natasha's beloved gayborhood for some well-deserved gelato. My mom had never had gelato before and I had never heard such orgasmic noises emitting from her mouth before (thank the lord!). It was actually a very pleasant night and so great to just sit and chat with her again. I haven't really made it home much this summer.

Mum stayed over and this morning we woke up bright and early and headed for beautiful Chestnut Hill and the Morris Arboretum. It was spectacularly gorgeous and my mom loved it. She's very into plants, she's even a member of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. What a nerd. =)

Unfortunately, mom had to head back after lunch. I was pretty exhausted (I think that's the first time in monthes, nay, years that I'd gotten up at 7 AM on a Saturday) so I pretty much chilled for the rest of the afternoon. I did get to view a bit of Kate's Indecision 2004 dvds which were both incredibly wonderful and incredibly tragic (because we now know how the story ends). Sigh. I'm glad they decided to do this dvd collection because I missed all the good election Daily Shows due to being in the UK at the time. I should send them a thank you.

And then tonight, I FINALLY went and saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. While it's hard not to feel....errr... squeamish about a few elements when mentally comparing it to the original - when I thought about it and totally wiped the original out of my mind - I really really loved it. Not that I didn't think there were parts that were maybe better than the original, and parts where I enjoyed the original much more - they were just very different. As were Depp's and Wilder's interpretations of the Wonka role (although I do believe undoubtably that this Charlie is far superior). I just got back though, so perhaps I need a bit more time to mull it over. But VERY enjoyable, very visually exciting, very funny. And I do stand by my previous statement of Depp making any role sexy. =)

Anyhow, I think I'll be taking it easy tonight. I hope you are all having glorious evenings in your respective locations. Good night, faithful audience.

I found this picture whilst perusing my photos. In case anyone was wondering, this is what Scotland looks like from an airplane. Note the wing in the upper left corner. =)

Brigit and Andrew are housesitting in Mt. Airy this week. Lucky bastards!

Self Betterment Week

Hello everybody! Welcome to Melinda's first self betterment week of the summer. Typically I would have had one way before this, but I was having too much fun. So it goes.

Feeling pretty good about things. Made a trip back to Huntsman for the first time in awhile - actually realized that I do miss it, quite a bit. Strange, huh? The building that's caused me so much agony in the past...

Anyhow, after work I came back for a little bit to chill, and then biked down to Huntsman. It was my first bike ride in, literally, years. It was great, although I was a bit scared at first, cars can be quite intimidating. But I think I've got my technique back. It's like... err... riding a bike. =)

My purpose in going to JMHH was quite nerdy - I want to teach myself to use ARGUS, real estate valuation software, before the whole recruiting process begins in the fall. And actually, it's pretty fun! At least I think so, which means that probably most of you wouldn't feel the same way, but I suppose that's what makes us all different, especially in our little career pursuits. Still thinking about eventually getting a PhD though. PhD's are so sexy.

After JMHH, I had the good fortune to run into my lovely Natasha. I was going to go to the gym, but instead, I walked my bike down to her apartment for some well-deserved gelato. We chatted a bit and then I biked furiously back - it felt Fabulous.

Now it's a shower, strawberries, soda and a little downtime before bed. I felt like writing too.

Yesterday was Deanna's birthday. We all went to the Olde City Continental for drinks and dinner which was very enjoyable, despite the dim-witted waitress ("Can I get you some Fiji water?" "You don't have to wink at me!").

Sunday was my darling little sister's 15th birthday - she's getting so old! I can hardly believe it (nor do I want to). I got her a Penn hoodie (such a cop-out, but she liked it nontheless) and she earned some dvd's and video games as well. It was nice spending this weekend with the family. I do miss them a lot sometimes, although I am enjoying living here very much.

Saturday my parents came to retrieve me from the city and we went to my grandparents' house in South Jersey to acquire Katie. My grandmother told us all about her very obscure and slightly frightening dream involving an abandoned house, a sport cars, orders to murder, and a man exposing himself. I adore my family so much.

I finished Harry Potter 6 sometime over the weekend, which was quite an emotional ordeal. Rowling's writing has improved so much - I was very impressed by the political and social commentary contained within, for a children's book, it is very well-developed, or so I think.

That's about it, I suppose. The self betterment should continue through the week and my mom may come visit on Saturday. That will be nice. So I shall say Good Evening, dear readers, and wish you all the best while I drift off to sleep.

sane

Love will come through by Travis

Yeah, I know he looks much younger, but we're actually the same age! Last Saturday at Monks.

Waiting for the Man

Today was a really great day, in all senses of the word. I mean, work was eh, but not bad - I got some really good stuff done, at least in the first half of the day, and I worked in some time to chat with my mom. The weather was absolutely PERFECT - you could not dream up better.

It was just filled with random nicenesses. Chatting with mom was one. Receiving praise from the boss was another. Receiving two cds from two different people. Buying Katie's birthday present. Happy hour at New Deck. Walking to South Street with Tom. Buying concert tickets (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! at the First Unitarian Church). [Finally] buying The Velvet Underground & Nico (from which the title of this post comes). And tomorrow is Friday!

The day was honestly spectacular. I think it was mostly because of the weather. I am realizing how much the weather affects my mood lately. More the intense heat than anything else. Although intense cold has just the same effect. I hate weather that makes you just want to stay inside. Although I like rain... But anyhow, today was just wonderful.

And it was preceded by a rather decent week and a great weekend. My darling Olivia had come to visit on Saturday. We had a big dinner party in her honor, I made green and white lasagna (which turned out great, quite unexpectedly, as it was my first try), Kate made breadsticks, Deanna made salad, the boys brought wine, we listened to the Amelie soundtrack as we ate, there were namecards involved - it was lovely!

Anyhow, so after dinner, Tom, Andy, Olivia and I decided to go to Monks and we brought our namecards with us. We got seats at the bar and started the fun. I decided to drink scotch instead of beer, as their selection is quite intimidating, and I had my first taste of an Islay malt (Laphroaig 12 year) - which made me realize that I'm not a huge fan of the Islay. It wasn't bad, just VERY flavorful and peatish. So then after I had finished I took another look at the selection. I saw a "21" among the bottles and was quite intrigued. I queried the bartender, Bernadette, about the bottle and found out it was a 21 year old from the Orkney islands. It was a merchant label (The Glenhaven) which means that they buy surplus casks of a whisky and sell it in the States under their name. I wish I knew which distillery it came from, but I didn't examine it closely enough. Anyhow, I knew I wanted some. It was $15/dram but weeeellllll worth it. I was drinking a scotch as old as I am, fer Christ's sake! It was really gorgeous and definitely the best I've had thusfar. Smooth, slightly fruity, stimulating, light color, definitely full-bodied and robust. After that, although I did want more, my pocketbook was still scolding me, so I got a dram of a 12 year old MacCallan, which was quite nice as well. But the 21 year old was fabulous! While I was drinking, I struck up a conversation with a man behind the bar, who turned out to to be Tom, the co-owner, and a lovely person. We chatted about wine, Scotland, and of course, scotch. He also complimented us on our namecards! It was a really fantastic evening.

Well, I have been indulging in my Harry Potter habit and Tom just brought me the most recent publication, so I think I'll go start it. Have a splendid night, friends and lovers.

The Way I See It

I found this on my Starbucks cup this morning:

"The Way I See It #37
Embrace this right now life while it's dripping, while the flavors are excellently woesome. Take your bites with bravery and boldness since the learning and the growing are here in these times, these exact right nows. Capture these times. Hold and kiss them because it wil soon be very different.
-- Jill Scott"

Ok, so this was shocking enough - Starbucks advising me how to live my life, attempting to be inspirational, yet numbering their little stolen "insights" etc. But whatever, that I can deal with. What really got me was what was underneath said quotation:

"This is the author's opinion, not necessarily that of Starbucks."

Ok - WHAT exactly are they afraid people are going to believe here?? What do they envision might happen if someone believes this is actually the opinion of Starbucks? Are they afraid that someone is actually going to find life, take bites out of it, lose some teeth, and sue them?! Some days I feel that my father may just be right about a couple of things.

*Octuple (??? Is that real???) sigh*

Buy this!!

I always mean to write album recommendations on here, but I forget so here is a couple OUTSTANDING (and I don't use the capitalization lightly) albums:

1. Buy immediately - Funeral by the Arcade Fire.... I think they are my favorite new band of the year. Amazing. And beautiful.

2. Also buy immediately - Demon Days by Gorillaz... loving it. Hard to not dance to. Get it.

Songs to download (not all new songs but all good) - basically it is a "what is Melinda listening to these days" sort of list: Colours by Donovan, A King and a Queen by Okkervil River, Sexx Laws by Beck, Lost and Found by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, Cocaine by Eric Clapton, Banquet by Bloc Party, Night Moves by Bob Seger


GO, MUSIC LOVERS, GO AND FIND YOUR FORTUNES!!

"Someone told me long ago, there's a calm before the storm..."

...I know! It's been comin' for some time."

Note to readers: Be careful what you wish for!

Sisters! At the Zoo!

Katie, kissing one of her "guns" in the bird house.