Monday, September 22, 2008

Chchchchchchanges

The past seven days have been pretty hectic. I finally got some more hours at work (yay!), found a second job (extra yay!), revisited a friendship, celebrated a relationship milestone, saw one of my favorite performers, and enjoyed some quality time with my fav girl.

If you've been following my life since May, you would know that I've been on the prowl for a full-time job. Coming to terms with the fact that my bachelor's degree means basically nothing in the real world has been pretty difficult. No one is hiring full-time, or if they are you need about 20 different certifications and years of experience. So I followed some leads of possible well paying part-time work, and found myself in a hospital in Jersey talking to a nice HR woman. She found me a job with steady, although slightly inconvenient, hours. Come October I will be one of the many Americans with a second job. It's only temporary, right?

So Wednesday was probably my favorite day (Thursday was a close second). It was my day off, and I had originally planned on spending it riding my bike, drinking beers, and seeing Why? and Mount Eerie. But it wound up being taken up by a job interview (nice, but not the same type of fun a beer filled bike ride brings), naps, and an unexpected text message from a friend. I groggily smeared on some eyeliner, searched for my wallet, and sped off to the Pour House in East Falls to meet her for a beer. It was nice catching up, and I'm happy to know she's still the same and pretty good.

After a questionable drive along the river, I found myself around Rittenhouse. Since I've lived in Philly I've only missed one Why? show. And that was because of a car accident that landed me in the emergency room for about 8 hours. I've missed every other Mount Eerie show, so I knew the show would be a treat. I was not disappointed.

There are some bands you just need to see live to truly appreciate their talent. Sometimes because they are such a spectacle, sometimes because their ability to play ensemble is mesmerizing, and sometimes because the attention you must give to a live show helps bring out subleties you might normally miss. I admit that most of the times I've listened to Mount Eerie I've been driving. My attention fades in and out with the flow of traffic. I already knew I liked the sounds, but watching and really listening to Phil Elverum was a lovely experience. The music is simple. The words are simple. But everything is true and beautiful. I was finally able to really appreciate what he does.

And Why? was wonderful, of course. I did really want to hear some older stuff ("Just one from Hymie's Basement. Even Early Whitney. Please?") but it was fun to listen to songs from their new album. I had been listening to Alopecia pretty steadily, so I was ready to sing along. You can't stay quiet in my opinion. I did feel old (what, old at 22?) because most of the kids there were around 16. I saw smiling faces full of braces. This was strange. I felt better once Cassie got there and we looked at some Biochemistry slides. No matter how many times I see Why?, I always feel pretty sad when it's over. I'm still a little sad. Oh yeah and Travis forgot the camera so I had to use my phone and I didn't really feel happy about that thankyouverymuch.




So without making this post too long (probably at that point by now...) Let's move on to Thursday. Ah September 18th. Four years ago that day I think that Travis and I had a moment. We were seeing Mono play at the Church (Fly Pan Am got sick and canceled) and half way through their set our eyes met. We had gone to the show together, but only as friends. There was this hot energy in the air and I guess we just realized that there was something between us. I think it took a while until our relationship was verbally official, but we consider that to be our anniversary day. It's all arbitrary anyway. Pick a day and that's it, right? So for our anniversary Travis and I decided to go to the Ritz for a movie. We went to see Burn After Reading, but were enticed by free tickets to see Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. It looked cute, it was free, and we could still get our parking validated. Sweet. The movie was alright. I think we missed like 30 minutes of it, but it wasn't hard to catch up. Maybe we'll see the other movie next week, as that's what we really wanted to do.

After the movie I was pretty starving, so Travis decided he'd treat me to tapas at Bar Ferdinand. I (eventually) happily agreed. I realized that they have decently priced delicious beers. Their food is also fabulous. We ate some meat from a Spanish pig that had only been fed acorns. YAY! I am all about feeding pigs acorns. I bet that pig was really happy to eat those acorns. And I was really happy to eat that pig.

Friday=boring. Saturday was really fun. I worked all day and then went to my co-worker and friend Kim's house for a lovely dinner of fabulous cheese, beers, goat cheese and roasted red pepper lasagna, finished with some wonderful homemade cream puffs! And she claims she doesn't cook! After dinner I ran to meet some of my family for dessert. It was my Grandmom's birthday and my parents took her and my Aunt Kathy out for dinner in Old City. We met up and when to Bon Bon Artisan Gelato for coffee and dessert. After some quality family time Travis and I ran off to Sugar Mom's where we met up with my most favorite girl Netty. Got one $1 PBR just as the special was ending, bonded with my girl, and then met up with Kim and two of our other friends from work. As usual Travis was surrounded by ladies. Luckily he enjoyed their company (honestly, who wouldn't?!) And he did have a fun time drawing a lovely replica of a PBR can on the graffiti table.


The night ended around 2:45am with Travis sans one ear gauge (if you are at Sugar Mom's and randomly find a silver double flared 0-gauge tunnel please hand it over and you will receive a prize!) and me with acid reflux. Not to mention delirious from beer and a seemingly long bike ride into North Philly.

Sunday was pretty restful. Sleep, meatball sub, car ride to Wilmington, nap, a yummy Bobby (otherwise known as Thanksgiving on a roll), and a family get together. It was Travis's brother-in-law's birthday so we went to say hi and celebrate. It was nice and chill and it's always nice to see everyone.

Now for another week of work and hopefully happy hours.

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