My Independence Day

Today I submitted my resignation and two weeks notice to my current employer. Since my last boss got fired but is now technically just "on suspension", things have been fairly stressful and it has become the kind of place you hate to be. The bottom line is...I'm FREE! Two weeks and counting. And the great part is it's not really even a whole two weeks. For this holiday weekend, I'm going to be flying out of town and visiting the land where you can forget all of your troubles. You may even forget your name...

Vegas, baby. Vegas.

A Request

It has come to my attention that the first review is in for The Dark Knight, which is set to release on July 18. As I expected, the review was almost completely sterling and gave hope to me since I've been awaiting this film's release since I'd heard of its existence. It has been quite some time since I'd seen the first teaser for The Dark Knight and the moment I'd finished watching it I knew that Heath Ledger's performance was going to be a significant moment in his career. Unfortunately, since January 22 of this year (which happens to be my birthday, by sheer coincidence), people have forgotten about the performance and focused solely on the actor. For a while I was in shock, just like everyone else, but I've since let it go. There is only so much time one can focus on the fact that someone is gone. For me it is more important to see what that person has left behind. Now that this performance is the last of what we'll see from a talented actor, I think we should appreciate it for what it is. I've heard from many people that they'll have a hard time watching The Dark Knight because they'll be thinking things like "Oh, how sad", or "It's so sad he's gone". I can appreciate that some are still mourning his loss and I wouldn't begrudge anyone their time to grieve, but I think focusing on that is doing him a great disservice. Think about what you would want. Think about what any artist would want. If you had given a performance of a lifetime, would you want your own death to overshadow that? Let your mind absorb it as a completely separate thing. Let yourself appreciate it. Hell, enjoy it.Please.

One for the Road

In a couple of days I'm going to be driving home to spend the weekend with my mom, who I haven't seen in a number of months. For some people this might not seem like a big deal, but it's a little ridiculous when you can take a 4 hour drive to get there. Now that I've finally whittled away a weekend just to get home, I'm going to let you in on a little ritual that I've developed for these extended solo-trips. 

• Two drinks are required for making the trip. One caffeinated (usually an iced coffee, my D.O.C), and a bottle of water. 
• Fully charged cell-phone for any road side emergency (or to bother other people in case I get bored).
• Newly Burned CDs with a custom playlist just for the trip. I'll give you an example. I've just burned the new disc for my trip this Friday night. Since I'll be driving at night, I thought it would be more appropraite to fill it with things that are a bit more mellow. Here are the tracks:

1. "Waiting On the World to Change"- John Mayer (feat. Ben Harper)
2. "We Belong Together" - Gavin DeGraw
3. "After Tonight" - Justin Nozuka
4. "Who Needs Shelter" - Jason Mraz
5. "Between The Lines" - Sara Bareilles
6. "Strawberry Fields Forever" - Ben Harper
7. "Tidal Waves" - Matt Duke
8. "Stuttering" - Ben's Brother
9. "Fairytale" - Sara Bareilles
10. "I Fell It All" - Feist
11. "Diamonds On the Inside" - Ben Harper
12. "Dreamgirl" - Dave Matthews Band
13. "Giving Up" - Ingrid Michaelson
14. "A Case of You" - Joni Mitchell

I feel it's important to create a mood for every trip because as some of you may know, it can get quite dull to be by yourself for an extended period of time. The only way I can be entertained for at least four hours in this situation is if my mind is occupied by something. Maybe I'm beating a dead horse, here, but usually if my mind has to be occupied by something it's going to be one of the pieces I'm working on. This is the time I use to iron out all of the kinks in any plot or create another story out of something that just pops up into my head because of an interesting verse. The story I'm currently working on is my first love story, hence all of the pop songs and love songs. 

The CD is ready to go, but I'm not. I'm still prepping for my trip. Checking the weather, doing laundry, cleaning house, making sure to bring the right shoes, etc. Los Angeles has been experiencing some serious heat, so along with some good music, I'm going to make sure and pack the good sunglasses. 

P.S. I'm also saving my first listen to Coldplay's new album for the trip.

A Tasty Treat

The blinding blaze of Summer is upon us, so it's fairly understandable that we seek out a delicious frozen treat to help us beat the heat. With this in mind, I'd just like to make a suggestion:

Skip the

Eat 

It's delicious and totally worth it. (Small Original with Raspberries is my bag, baby.)

I Want My MTV

Last night I had nothing better to do than to watch the MTV Movie Awards. I think I might've been much better off reading a book (or working on my own) than sitting through that, but it was very much like watching a train wreck. The winners of these awards were bogus. A few of them were for movies that I think should've gone straight to DVD. I'm really surprised at the whole evening. The highlight of the night was watching Coldplay perform their new single "Viva La Vida", but that's not really fair for me to single it out because I always love Coldplay. It was like having a horrible meal with a giant slice of delicious cake in the middle. There's another problem I have with this network. Unfortunately, they've found it necessary to focus a lot of their programming on mindless dating shows and "reality" TV. I'm not going to say anything more about that because if you're at all attuned to what's popular these days, you probably know what I'm talking about. 

One of the fundamental principles from which I operate is "don't complain unless you're willing to do something about it". So in the spirit of that idea, I have a proposal for MTV:

Instead of peppering your programing with mindless reality television, get more involved with what's going on in the world. Instead of following Lauren Conrad around to see what club she's going to pitch a fit in next, perhaps you could follow around the interns in Washington or medical students who are interns at a hospital. There would be plenty of TV drama, I promise you. Also, if you're going to call yourself Music Television, then you might try focusing on music! How about having a concert series? With all of the acts out there in the world, I find it hard to believe that you wouldn't be able to fill the roster. 

Come on you guys, you can be better than this. (I hope). 

Hard To Swallow

It's true: One of my favorite books is now a movie. Click the quote to view the trailer for Choke.

"Those who remember the past tend to get the story really screwed up."

Sky High Expectations Take You To The Lowest Lows

I'm sure it has been made quite obvious by now that I am located in Southern California. Though I wasn't born here (the state of Texas possesses that honor), I was raised here. All over Southern California. Weekends in Santa Barbara, Saturday nights in Santa Monica, etc. You know the rest.  You're aware then, I'm sure, that Southern California is home to the city that bore impossible standards of beauty: Los Angeles, or more appropriately Hollywood. The reason I mention this is that the standards of beauty I've grown up with are almost impossible. Here we are, the young women of Generation Y and unlike the women before us whose mothers burned their bras and would die before applying a stitch of mascara, our mothers had blush painted up to their hair lines and lip gloss in big sticks applied like Magic Markers. Where does that leave us? Trying to look as naturally beautiful as possible with the help of all conceivable products available at the nearest Sephora. Long black eyelashes, fleshy pink lips, and most importantly a glowing complexion that is tan tan tan. What makes this an opportune time to reach a very low low? Well, while trying to achieve a tan one can encounter any number of problems: 

1. Skin like leather in ten years or less. 

2. Cancer. Enough said.

3. Sunburns that hurt worse than scalding hot water. 

Side effect number three is the affliction from which I am currently suffering. In fact, I think maybe "suffering" may be too tame a word for what I'm going through. My skin is hot pink and feels as though it is being simultaneously stretched out and stabbed with needles. Here I am slathering myself with Aloe and Cocoa Butter thinking "if only I could achieve normality again."  My skin is screaming at me "Why? WHY? Why!?" and I wish I had an intelligent answer for it, but the best I can do is shrug (even if it does cause a momentous amount of pain to do so) and say...

That's California, baby.