2009 Rundown

Things
1 King Khan and the Shrines Birthday weekend.
2 Ocracoke Island Vacation
3 Gonerfest.
4 Visits from friends (Trip, Kandi and Katee, Juli and Jim, Amber and Ryan, Justin and Tabetha, Steve)
5 Parties at Juli’s house/studio. Pinatas! Photo booths! Live Bands!
6 Having Dance-offs with my brother, Jordan
7 Prom! At the Grey Eagle
8 Awesome concerts/watching the entire series of the Wire obsessively with Jeremy
9 Getting a surprise trip to Atlanta to eat at Woodfire Grill and go to the Bodies Exhibition
10 When Porter and Nocci finally started getting along!
11 Being snowed in with Jeremy and making chili and hot chocolate and fires.


Music (not necessarily new stuff, just what I listened to the most)
1 Man Man
2 Langhorne Slim
3 Okkervil River
4 King Khan and the Shrines
5 Bryan Hartley and/or Halfacre Gunroom
6 Nobunny
7 The Hold Steady
8 Songs:Ohia/Magnolia Electric Company
9 Ryan Adams
10 Amanda Blank

Movies
1 Fantastic Mr. Fox
2 Inglorious Basterds
3 District 9
4 Zombieland
5 Adventureland
6 Friday the 13th (I’m a sucker for horror stuff like this. Can’t wait for the final Sleepaway Camp in 3D!!!)
7 Julie and Julia
8 Coraline
9 500 Days of Summer
10 Where the Wild Things Are

TV
1 The Wire (I know it’s not from this year, but we watched the entire series this year.)
2 Eastbound and Down
3 Top Chef
4 The Office
5 30 Rock
6 Community
7 Chopped
8 Squidbillies
9 Flipped
10 SNL

Readin' (I’m fudging on this a bit b/c I can’t really remember what I read this year. I know there’s some better stuff than this - I’m just bad at recalling what year I read things.)

1 On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee
2 The Know It All by AJ Jacobs
3 McSweeny’s
4 Lolita (re-read for the zillionth time) by Vladimir Nabokov
5 Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
6 The Year of Living Biblically by AJ Jacobs
7 GQ Magazine (I have no idea why Gentlemen’s Quarterly is one of my favorite magazines - it just is)
8 Deadstar Twilight by Chez Pazienza
9 Grace After Midnight by Felecia “Snoop” Pearson
10 Things I've Learned from Women Who Dumped Me

Memories that particularly stick out in my mind:

1. Sleeping (or trying to) in the car with Jeremy when we got to the ferry loading place to go to vacation. We didn’t plan well enough and had a night of full bladders, mosquito bites, and hot, sweaty, uncomfortable car sleeping while we waited in the parking lot of some weird, closed down, scary motel for the ferry lines to open.

2. A bird stealing Jeremy’s Cheez-its when we were playing in the ocean and screaming about waves namping us.

3. Drunkenly trying to sing with Justin at Juli’s party and not knowing the words and generally embarrassing myself but not caring because I was surrounded by people I absolutely love!

4. Asking King Khan to play “Took My Lady to Dinner” at the Hi Tone show because it was my birthday and he they hadn’t played it at the two previous night’s shows, and then them playing it as the closing song and me and Juli and Trip and Kandi being SO EXCITED about it!

5. Purple Drank

6. Making David play Connect 4 with me 100 or so times in a row.

7. Getting Porter and then getting home and wondering what the hell I’d done.

8. Porter magically getting on the kitchen stove after climbing a series of furniture and eating 1/2 a frozen pizza and a full pan of used frying oil and then being sick for the rest of the day. I had to sleep on the couch with him and rub his belly all night, and half of it was spent outside with him in a whimpering, puking, pooping little mess. :(

9. Nocci finally beginning to play with Porter and not absolutely despise him.

10. Photobooth insanity at Juli’s!

11. Having my first amuse bouche and mushrooms that tasted like porkchops at Woodfire Grill in Atlanta

12. Seeing the Bodies Exhibition and having strange realizations about the human body.

13. Getting my IUD and it being the most pain I have ever, ever experienced in my life.

14. Meeting Amber and it not being awkward at all, a total surprise and also weird because I was sick as shit.

15. Singing loudly in the car with Jeremy while on roadtrips.

16. Hearing “Two Thieves” at Gonerfest and just being really, really happy.

17. Getting covered in Faygo and PBR at NoBunny and it being an insane amount of fun.

18. Realizing how much I miss my Jonesboro/Memphis friends.

19. Dancing onstage at Langhorne Slim with Zeb.

20. Surprising Justin at his show in Jonesboro on my Birthday!

juli jackson

09.20.2009, originally uploaded by julibat.

Juli Jackson is a friend I've known since the age of about twelve, when everyone is awkward, pudgy, has bad hair and is desperately searching to find out who they are. There was a period during the college era where we lost touch. She went to film school in Philly, and I stayed in our small Arkansas hometown area for all the wrong reasons. Luckily we got back in touch - I'm not sure if it was Myspace or Facebook or what, but I'm so glad it happened. She's one of the most talented, dedicated, hard-working people I know. She's gifted and skilled beyond belief in everything - photography, film-making, cooking, canning, sewing, crafting - she does it all. Here is a recent photo of hers that I just love. Be sure to check out her art and photography. You'll be glad you did.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/julijackson

Gonerfest 6

gonerfest 6 crowdsurf 2, originally uploaded by cherry valentino.

I took a little trip to attend Gonerfest 6 in Memphis, Tennessee, last weekend and that shit was CRAZY! There was PBR everywhere (including soaking everyone there from it being sprayed on the crowds), fireworks, blood, piss, and I saw at least four cocks at various shows. What's up with that?

I had an excellent time and only wish Asheville had shows like this.

*sigh*

for reals.

so, registration for baking school went okay. i had a little schedule figured out to take, but it turns out what i had picked wasn't an option. in the end it worked out, though. at first i thought i wasn't going to get to go at all due to their lab hour heavy, daytime only classes, as well as their confusing "co-requisites" and necessary time in the restaurant they run to give students practice time. after much fussing, near crying (i'm not really a crier so something has to be serious for me to break out in tears over it) and completely giving up on getting to go since i can't quit my day job for it, my advisor (who strangely enough reminds me a lot of my advisor in journalism school at Arkansas State University) let me know that i could split up the five hour long classes that i thought i had to take at the same time (isn't that what co-requisite means?) which would've had me at school from almost 9-3 daily. yay for me! so, while i don't get to take baking yet, i'll be taking Food Science, Food Science Lab, Sanitation and Safety, and Sanitation and Safety lab, as well as an online class - Intro to Computers, which is sadly enough a requirement that i can't get out of. i was told i could test out after 10%, so i'll probably try to do that. i don't mind paying for the class even if i don't take it - it's the waste of my time i'm worried about.

i also need to figure out what to do about my puggies' mid-day walks. i go home daily to give them a short potty break and then go back to work, but that won't be possible with my schedule that starts next month. i need to look into dog walkers, but that seems like a luxury i definitely can't afford.

i bought my pastry kit from the AB Tech bookstore, and it's chock full of knives, thermometers, biscuit cutters, silpats, pastry bags, pastry tips, and all other kinds of goodness that i can't wait to get into. unfortunately, i'm not taking any cooking classes this semester, so i may have to wait! i still have to buy a scale, my chef whites (!) and get a few shots before school starts, so i'm going to be a busy girl.

Bele Chere is this weekend! my list of priorities:

1. Eat a Funnel Cake
2. Drink a Lemon Shake Up (nothing is better than lemonade that you have to chew due to the gritty sugar left undissolved in it)
3. Eat some Greek food
4. Take pictures of the dumb ass protesters there
5. See the Old 97s

i would love to see Now You See Them, but unfortunately they're playing while i'll still be at work. DRAT! we may also go to the Anti-Bele Chere music thing, but i'm not sure yet.

so, i finally broke down and got a nice, brand new pillow-top king sized bed with all new IKEA sheets, comforters, pillows, and throws, and it's absolutely my second favorite purchase after Nocci. i feel so much better every day when i get up since getting it. i have no idea why i put it off for so long.

exciting things coming up! the pastry arts program starts soon, i'm flying to memphis for Gonerfest in september, my anniversary is in October, then it's time for the holidays and all the traveling and whirlwind visiting that goes along with it.

i need to try to enjoy summertime while it's still here, because as soon as it turns a little cold i'm going to be shivering, whining, cursing the cold, and threatening to move to a tropical island.
yay, summer!

ignored

i've been so bad at blogging lately. things have been busy. we took a vacation to the outer banks and i fell in love with Ocracoke Island, i have baking and pastry arts school registration on the 20th and need to start figuring all that out and buying my zillions of chef coats and knives and other supplies that i need, we have friends coming to visit soon, i've been planning trips to memphis to hang out with some bffs and go to Gonerfest, and i've been trying hard to keep up with this 365 Self Portrait project, but that shit is hard! i'll be in bed about to pass out from exhaustion and suddenly realize i forgot to take one! also, when i take a photo with my holga or SLR i forget about it, then upload a crappy digital one i shot, then wonder if i should replace it later or just leave it and have a stash of extras or something? plus, i never write down the date i took them. i guess once they're developed i can replace them if they're good, and ignore the bad ones. ha!

i need motivation to go to the gym. i got off track after a visit from good friends, recovery from a small medical procedure, a vacation, and now it's like i'm starting all over. so difficult. last night i had tomatoes and a baked potato for dinner and jeremy had delicious fried chicken in honey mustard. sigh.

we went to see Jay Reatard at the Orange Peel last night. i was worried because i really don't like seeing shows at the Orange Peel, but it turned out okay. he referred to it as "a big, cold room," which was on point at first, but then it seemed to fill up a little more. they were great, and the opener was great too. yay for cheap shows!

*blush*

I've been featured on the excellent blog of Little T Jane! I'm beyond flattered! Be sure to check out her blog of fun things! She has the cutest picks daily and I actually bought a cute teapot set she featured yesterday! :)

weirdest chair ever. fake wooden wheelchair?