"I'm spinning round the room in awe" ryan adams

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Who's got scabies?

While Jen and I were riding on the subway back to Herald Square, we noticed a rather large tube of ointment on the seat. Who loses a large tub of ointment? Wouldn't you notice it fall out of your pocket? And it was on the seat, not the floor - how do you overlook that?

Regardless, we didn't touch it, but Jen did digitally document it so we could see what disease the owner of the ointment has.

http://www.drugs.com/PDR/Elimite_Cream.html
Scabies. Ouch.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Broadway, Akiva, & Matties

This past Sunday, Tanya and I trekked into NYC for an afternoon of shoe shopping. We didn't find the rainboots or cute work shoes that we were looking for, but we did pop in and out of stores, dodged the tourists, and bought sidewalk wares on Broadway.

After a few hours and many blocks later, we needed pizza and coffee. Tanya and I popped onto Houston and got sustenance and caffeine then headed to Piano's to catch Akiva's set. We met up with Angela, Gia, and Andrew and grabbed a table near the back and ordered a round of drinks. Akiva's set was great, and the sound was good. Oddly enough, the last time I saw him perform was in the spring - where the hell did all the time go? He busted out a few unreleased songs and emerged with some Onyx at the end with David McMillan. Two white boys with acoustic guitars shouting out "SLAM!! Duh Dah Dah!!!" is a sight to see. I swear, is Akiva's rock star dreams falter, he always has a rap career to fall back on. He rocked a great LES shirt for the venue that he picked up at the fashion show he performed at a few weeks ago. It meets my rock star fashion approval. Tanya enjoyed David's set, so we stayed for that as well. I remember hearing his tunes when he contacted Marlon Spike last year, but I hadn't seen him live before this date. It was also great seeing the Akiva posse out, especially those who I didn't think would recognize me who haven't seen me in NYC yet. Hopefully we will all meet up again in December at The Cup.

As Akiva and David were wrapping up their last song, we dodged out so that we (minus Tanya, the show had sold out :-( ) could run up to Irving Plaza for the Matt Nathanson show. While we were waiting for the subway, we ran into Nick & Jesse. You know you've been somewhere long enough when you run into friends at the subway station.

At Irving, we managed to catch the start of Matt Wertz's set and managed to position ourselves in the midst of the anti-Matt Wertz club. We still enjoyed the set and Angela and I both got the songs we enjoyed.

During the set break, we met up with Judy, Ginger, Regina, Dan, and Bonnie and headed to the other side of the stage. We were all kinda concerned that we would be the oldest people there, but strangely enough, we were all pretty equal - nice. I hadn't seen Matty Nathanson since days of yore at the Point (now closed) in Bryn Mawr. Matt has always been a favorite of mine and he is still one of my favorite lyricists and performers, but I just never desired to him tackle a full out venue. Oh wait - I did see him when he played at UD a few years ago. I guess I was jaded and also didn't have my Matty N crew with me whenever he was around before. Now I have one in NYC. :-)

But the show was hands down phenomenal. Matt rocks, and it is fabulous that he is selling out venues in light of getting dropped by Universal. They just didn't know what to do with him and his rabid fan base. He isn't just another sing-songwriter, and the trends followed him. He never sold out, but he did put out a great album two years ago under that label. We all sang along to every song and it brought back so much to me. Matt Nathanson was pretty much the soundtrack to the solace that I found in rock and roll during college. I'll always remember this show - thanks girls.

Afterwards we came out into the city streets and it was a hell of a lot colder than it was earlier in the day. I shivered all the way home and made phone calls during my trek since I didn't have my ipod on me. Everyone got weird and long messages, especially when I saw a hooker getting picked up a few blocks away from my apartment.

25th Birthday

Hello from the rock I have been under.

Last Sunday, the inhabitants of 192A hosted our first apartment party. The occassion being a welcoming to our apartment as well as Tanya and my 25th birthday celebrations. Usually we attract quite a crowd, but the Sunday evening (we all had off on Monday) and monsoon kept people away except for a handful of loved ones.

We got enough food and booze to keep a small army nourished, which was plenty to go around for our crowd of less than twenty. We also purchased two birthday princess hats that went around to Tanya and me.

I learned that apparently I can walk down the streets of Jersey City with a beer in my hand and no one looks twice. I gave up my yuengling for a tailor made Dan Drink - half peach vodka, half cranberry juice. (this will hit me later).

We all played Magic Stick. Tanya and Shaun brough Magic Stick into our lives. One takes a stick, holds it vertical in front of him, and spins around while others in a circle around him count to sixty. He then throws down the Magic Stick and jumps over it. Now this seems juvenile and no fun, but trust us, when you are inebriated, it is quite a joy for the participants. Dan toppled down. Chris L. used the whole damn circle to stumble around. I fell into Carolina and Chris. Carolina ran into the restroom after she spun around. Jesse did have the most gleeful expression out of all of us combined. Good stuff, I highly recommend magic stick at your next function.

For the rest of the evening we ate, chatted, listened to good tunes, and enjoyed the merriment. For a good portion of the evening, I was collapsed on the bathroom floor. Amy went to save me and fell victim to the boozey concoctions as well.

I think around 3 am we all crashed. Apparently I like to stick my ass on other people who share the bed with me and steal the blankets. Sorry, Amy - ha!

Monday, October 17, 2005

UD Homecoming 2k5

aka "Good God, Will It Ever Stop Raining"
10/8
(I haven't had time to blog, so I totally ganked this from Miss Jen's blog. My additions are in purple. Enjoy)


We wake up to a dark and stormy Newark on Aurora's floor and start to get ready (after falling asleep to bouncing ping pong balls a la beer pong). Miranda goes to the bathroom to straighten her hair (because straightening your naturally curly hair during a monsoon is intelligent), and comes back up a few minutes later waking up Aurora to tell her that she blew the fuse. Aurora tells us that someone else will take care of it. We chat a bit more and head over to Jay's. (outside of Jay's door, Damien showed us the dead bird wedged in the awning, it's beak was open and it was nasty)

Miranda, Jay and Epler each bought food to bring tailgating, and while there were only four of us there, we carted along enough food to feed about thirty-five thousand. Two types of bagels with the trimmings, doughnuts, burgers (meat and vegetarian), chicken, hotdogs, buns and condiments, 3 types of potato chips, potato and macaroni salads, sodas, juices, a bottle of champagne, a case of Smirnoff Twisted Cranberry malt beverages, a case of Miller Lite, and a case of Yuengling. I'm sure I left out plenty. We loaded all of this and a grill into Jay's truck, and then realized that a truck only seats two people, so Miranda and I jumped into the truckbed for the ride.

If you know anything about Miranda and I, we aren't exactly renowned for our coordination or practicality (especially not after 3 hours of sleep). We stumble onto the cooler, and figured that it would work well as a seat. The cooler was high enough so that we were sitting level with the walls of the truckbed, so there was nothing keeping us from toppling out. Stellar reasoning skills, I know. We hold onto each other as the truck starts to move, and the 5 inch puddle that resided near the cab of the truck (remember, it hadn't stopped raining since Friday) flowed towards, getting our feet wet. We whined, as if this would be the only time our feet would be wet that week.

Jay had to stop at the studio to grab a camera, so we got to see the old control room and check out the editing prowess that he learned at NFL films. It's always thought provoking to walk into a place that you haven't been in over a year that you used to spend all your time in. We head back out in the rain to the stadium, and Jay goes about 50 over the bridge on South College, and Miranda and I scream in terror (we did, and we almost toppled out and the propane went flying). We pull into the lot discussing the legality of riding in the back of a truck (they think it's legal in DE, I think it's legal if there's seatbelts in it) while driving past the police.

We grab a spot between the ice rink and the ag department, and find a bit of grass to pitch Epler's $10 tent on (hehe, dirty). For some reason, Jay insisted we move the tent over to a bigger area on the other side of the tree, which will prove to be The Lowest Point In All Of Delaware, as the rain from the entire state would drain into the swamp under our feet. We proceeded to spend the next hour in its entirety trying to put up the tent (as people watched and taunted, but we are all fighting blue hens so it is out of love). By the time we were finished we were so drenched that it didn't seem to matter that we were under canvas. There was grilling, there was eating, there was drinking, there were a few friends that stopped by, there was enough food left over to feed the football team (if it wasn't a monsoon, people were supposed to be at our tent in droves).

I need to add a whole new paragraph. Ok, one homecoming everyone who played in the mud at Homecoming got a rash. I was one of them, and ever since then I was scared of the mud at UD. They pump so muh chemicals in the ground so the UD lawns are perfect, and needless to say, that irritates the skin...let alone whatever crap was in the mud that year (i.e. pee, chlamydia, addition chemical run off...). Now for Homecoming Monsoon 2005, we were all sitting and walking in the swamp and mud that was known as our tent. We were all certain that we had herpes of the feet. I accidently dropped my bottle in the water, and that was a goner - no way I was putting that on my lips.

Speaking of the football team, they sort of suck now. My senior year we won the division 1AA national championship, and now we.. well, we lost to Hofstra, people (I went to almost every home game during my college career, and we were quite awesome...now not so much, we have really bit it this season). Granted there was lots of rain and mud (which was sort of fun to watch) and that half of the attempted passes bounced out of hands (probably because of the rain), but the other half were thrown to no one in particular, and we derserved our loss. Not many people came out due to the deluge, but it was nice to hear the fight song and and see a band member fall on the medal student stands and drop his tuba. Tuba down! (I actually think we pointed and snickered until we realized that the adults around us were actually concerned for the fallen tuba. We did take a picture of the injury and aftermath though, because we are cruel.) For the second tuba sighting of the afternoon, on the walk back to the truck we got stuck behind the band, and Miranda saw a bunch of tubas with blue "condoms" on them. We decided that they were just practicing safe tuba.

The only thing in the universe that would have made us happy was to get dry and warm again, and Aurora offered us use of her shower. We pulled up to her house and once again, there were people drinking on her porch, it didn't look like the party ever stopped. We were about to walk in when a boy held the door closed and said to Miranda "Were you the one who blew the fuse this morning?" We tried to get past him as he whined that he was the one that fixed it. We ran upstairs and I jumped in the shower.

Here's my bit of advice for the day: it probably isn't a good idea to take up the bathroom for an extended period of time during a house party. I was drying off when someone started pounding on the door, telling me to "hurry the fuck up". I got out a few minutes later and was face to face with an angry frat looking guy who was about twice as tall and wide as me. I tried flirting with him so that I didn't get pounded into a wall, and a few seconds later I was being told that I had such pretty eyes and did I want him to get me a beer. I don't know how I averted his charms and made my way back to the room.

Mir and I went to Homegrown! with Maryann and Dave Pittenger (we are bff again after our short little rift of hatred...apparently ;-) ), both of whom are fun and friendly (and that is why I love them) and one of whom told me that CNN was the Communist News Network and told me what a racist Wolf Blitzer was. That was entertaining. I gorged on my crab dip with apples, strawberry lemonade, and the garlic chicken sandwich with mashed potatoes, and was never so warm and happy. And then we left the restaurant and returned to dark rainy Main Street.

We tried enjoy the rest of the night in Newark, we really did. We tried calling around to get people to meet us at Deer Park, but no one wanted to venture out in the nastiness. We took a picture of the Omnisoul poster in Trabant and reminisced about those crazy college times. But then we thought of the awful weather, and the angry kids back at Aurora's, and the fact that things are definitely just not the same, and ran to find solace in Starbucks (Starbucks, oh Starbucks and oh how we have changed and found truth in ourselves while sitting in a cafe on a rainy Saturday night in Newark). We hung out and chatted for a bit, found out Dave P's show was cancelled in Wilmington, and headed back to New York.