I know, you guys are totally sick of hearing about how blazingly proud I am of my brother, but here he is in all his glory as the Wicked Witch of the West. I'm so proud!

So yeah. I went to see Vienna Teng again in the city this weekend. One of the things that was frustrating me about the lead-up to this show is that the venue, Le Poisson Rouge on BLeecker Street, had a really snazzy website with jack shit for information. It is a really great example of how a site can get so overwhelmed with cool little Flash displays that it fails to convey necessary information.

Anyhow, the doors opened at 6:30. I got there about 6:32, and went right in. It seemed that the state was on one side, and there were tables all around. There weren't many seats left by this point, but we got seats. Awesome. I was toward the entrance, close to the stage, and things seemed good.

But things were NOT FUCKING GOOD, my friends, not at all.

As the minutes ticked by, people filed in. Hordes of people. They were standing all around, behind me, in front of me, completely obscuring any view I might have of the stage. Pressing against me. Making me nervous.

The Paper Raincoat opened. They were adorable and talented, what little of them I could see. Ben Sollee followed, and man, this guy oozed talent. He did stuff with a cello I had never previously considered. Vienna Teng hit the stage, and really, she only performed songs from her new album. The thing that struck me was that she prefaced the song "White Light" with the caveat that she thought the song was great but that she lacked the pipes for it. She basically set us up to hate the song. We hated the song.

I see where Vienna was going with her new album, but I'm just not feeling a lot of it. What's good is VERY good. There just feels like there is a lot of filler. I was also sad that she only performed a handful of songs due to time constraints. Truthfully, I couldn't have given a rat's ass about The Paper Raincoat or Ben Sollee. Anyway, it was not as good as the last show, but as always, she is still worthwhile. I'm telling you -- Grandmother Song makes me laugh every damn time I see her do it.

That's all. It's the rush up to finals. Whee.

Finals are basically done. Another term is down. I only have six terms left, and a term is 10 weeks long. I've gotten a LOT done in a short period of time. I have a hard time on weeks like these. I have so much to catch up on -- housework, mostly, because it's really hard to find time to take a toothbrush to tiles when I am trying to learn to shepardize cases or what the appropriate way to abbreviate case names is. Oy. I feel like I only get to live life about five weeks of the year, when I'm not in school.

On another note, I will be returning to LIONE with the season opener. I am pretty sure that it will be really weird to see Last Guy (as opposed to New Guy), but I can't just keep staying isolated and painfully lonely in New York. I don't know how much LIONE I will play over the next year, but at least for the opener, I'm going. I may find the entire experience entirely too uncomfortable. I don't know. We'll see.

From the Lord (no, really, he looks just like Jesus):

http://tech.mit.edu/V128/N64/squidvswhale.html

It hurt my soul it was so funny. Thank you, Jesus. <3

I saw two little boys totally hook up their parents.( Hearts and stars and all that sappy stuff. )

What's been going on and why I just can't deal with my grandmother right now.

( Wah wah wah. )

So every once in a while I traipse over to the websites of a few musicians I love to see if they are playing anywhere near me. A couple of weekends ago I was thrilled to discover that Vienna Teng was playing in Brooklyn. Tickets: $15. That was a win for sure.
( My night at the show! )

Jim was kind of off the wall. A local character. He'd sweet-talk dollars out of people in town, as charming as he was weird. I think every town has a guy like Jim, a fucked up soul with no future, but who, for whatever reason, is liked by neighbors. Jim had prison tattoos from his earlier years as a hellraiser, when he shot up, smoked, and snorted any drug he could find, and he fucked his way across most of New England. But, now closer to 40 than to 30, Jim had settled down, and the worst he'd ever get arrested for was being tipsy in public. Again.

( All about Jim. )

Dude. This one... well, you'll see.( I didn't make this up. Seriously. )

So... I'm a math retard. It's true. Anyone who knows me knows that I suck at math. I fought and scrape for everyone damn point in this class. I cried. I might have considered throwing things, even. But ultimately, I did my very best, and I passed. Thanks to Math Genius Ari for his help. You can see how the funeral really borked my studying though, since I blew the final AND the logarithms test. *sigh* I tried my best, though.( Dun dun DUUUUN! )

This morning, Beth called to tell me that Aunt Sandy died. It seems like she had developed varices (like Dad had with his liver failure), burst one, and bled to death.

Aunt Sandy wasn't very nice to some of us, as I mentioned in a related blog. But I guess with her absence now, I feel a couple of things. First, I'm sad that after 20 years of my step-dad and mother being married, Aunt Sandy and my mother never could make nice. I'm sorry that my brother never really got to be close to her and have a strong relationship with her. Second, I'm pissed off that she smoked. I'm pissed off that my family had to watch her terrible death that was cause by smoking. I'm pissed off that my elderly grandmother had to watch such a violent end for her child, over self-inflicted injuries, really. I'm pissed off that reconciliation's chances were cut short because of cigarettes.

Cigarettes piss me the hell off. I just can't watch this happen again. Because it's harder than I thought it would be, with someone I didn't really care that much about, who never liked me and was barely civil to me. I cannot imagine how hard it would be to watch this happen with someone I really love. When Dad was dying, waiting for a liver, it was agony. It was agony knowing he did it to himself, and that he could have been vital and healthy, but wasn't. We expect to bury our parents, but I felt like I was going to be robbed of years of love, by a bottle of liquor. I was so blessed that things turned around, he got a liver, and survived. My paternal grandmother started smoking again after Poppy died. I am so afraid that one day I'm going to get a call that she's got cancer, and I'm not going to be so lucky in keeping around someone I love.

Aunt Sandy has been the model for female villains I've written, her real-life venom having inspired some very nasty exchanges in some of my fiction -- they've become some of my more favorite love-to-hate moments. Even so, her death is not one I would wish on anyone; quick enough that no one could really do anything to stop the bleeding, but long enough that she had time to emotionally suffer. I feel compassion about that. So while I am not experiencing a shift in emotion that often happens when someone dies, where we sanctify them and speak of their unswerving virtue and utter perfection in every way... I guess that when it comes right down to it, I feel bad. I just haven't decided if this collection of feelings speaks well or ill of me. It is what it is, I guess.

I have an ugly desklamp.

( God is it an UGLY lamp... )

Okay, seriously, apparently World, you need to know this. Incoming angry, bitter rant.

( It's not nice... )

* Grab the nearest book.
* Open the book to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

Have fun with this one, guys *eyeroll*:
For the next seventy-one years, the Mayflower Compact was the formal mechanism for the political order of the colony; In the meantime, the governments of Connecticut, Providence, and New Haven would establish similar compacts.

From Crime and Punishment: The History of the Criminal Justice System, for the win!

*wakes you up* Hey! You didn't have to fall ASLEEP, *god*!

So, it's been a while!

School has started back up, and tonight midterms finish. This term I'm just taking the intro class for law (I swapped my major), and repeating math. Next term I start going to school time and a half. I know I'm crazy. I recently admitted to a friend that school fills the gaps left by other things, I guess. If I'm too busy to think, I'm too busy to deal with things. I admit it.

I guess my point is that I'm going to be super busy, like I am now, only moreso!

Other than that, not too much is going on. I got 100 on my law midterm, yay, and I missed 1.33 points on my math midterm, much to my consternation. Tonight the paper is due in law, and then woohoo, then it's back to regular schoolwork. I'm kind of almost starting to believe I really am actually earning a degree. I'm still terrified of crapping out midway though.

What what's up with you guys?

True or false? All states in the US have bicameral legislatures! (Bicameral: having, consisting of, or based on two legislative chambers)

How long before we have Laura Schlessinger-esque nudie pics show up of hot Veepstakes winner Sarah Palin? ( Blasphemy within! Politics - enter at your own risk! )

I wanted to post some pictures from our adventures in Times Square. I am NOT PHOTOGENIC when I am HOT AND SWEATY, oy. I had mascara to my elbows, I think. Okay, I gotta run. I gotta do some frigging work around the house since MORE company is coming THIS weekend! It's crazier on the weekends now than it ever was when I played LIONE! OY!

I'm still alive, just suddenly, I got back from Daisie's wedding and have been GOING non-stop! *runs off to get more stuff done*