The LGBTGA Pride meeting last night was really fun. My friend lauron, who asked me to come, was there with her girlfriend Meghan. The winds of change is like musical chairs except there's no music. It helps me make friends!

I went to my remaining 2 classes today. Hilariously, my TE150 "prof" has the personality of one of those cooky science personalities (Bill Nye, Dr. Science, or Beakman--not Mr. Wizard). He made us get together for a skit that would help remind the class of our names. We chose alliteration: Jessica Jumps. Zach Zooms. Then, he went into a detailed discussion on how to access the MSU email service...

After classes, I visited Ben to rock out. He has this friend who lives down the hall who's painfully good at bass and guitar, but spends his time practicing Dave Mathews and the like. Crash! Into me, baby. He told me that he plans on writing music, but doesn't yet feel like he's good enough to play what he would write. When you can play every part of Canon in D like this kid...sigh.

My roommate wants to know what a bumbleclot is. Google says it's a Jamaican insult, but what does it really mean? I sort of got the hint that it means confused asshole, but still, I'd like to hear from an authority on Jamaican diction if at all possible.

Another day, another run in with Graham. This one not so bad for either of us I think. Just funny in a weird way. Sure, I still felt depressed but the feeling mostly passed.

Actually, Graham didn't see me despite being at arms length. Still weird.

I had been playing music with Ben at, I mean outside, of starbucks. It was going slow and then a couple people stopped and listened to us. We responded under the pressure. I think we really did a good job and that felt really wonderful after not playing together well in 3 months or so. And later, We ended up teaching them a melodica part and playing a song with them! For our efforts, we met two girls, one, a possible romanic interest for Ben. Best of all, we earned a whole dollar. Yes, you really can make money with music! Anyway, after they left, Ben and I just practiced and improvised off of a simple latin chord progression that went like: A Bb(Augmented) D D. Then we just messed around and talked for awhile (Graham walked by somewhere in there). Then, we met this homeless guy that said he lost his ID and we sat stumped about how you get ID when you don't have ID. We asked him a series of questions and found that he'd saved up the $14 it costs to get a new one at the secretary of state, but he needed his birth certificate or some like document to get it. Of course, you need ID to get a copy of your birth certificate too...We decided later that he could save up for a fake ID. I'll report on the Pride meeting I went to tomarow, but here's a taste: we played a game called "the winds of change."

Went out for dubs last night.

The hurricane spanning several states makes me nervous to watch.

Running into graham yesterday was awkward and depressing. He complimented my shirt, said it was nice. It is nice. We both could have stayed in the same place but, of course, it was bad for him too (for more go to gamblejones.com). I hate the situation, and worse, I can't pretend like it's not my fault...I wonder if he reads this like I read his.
I remember times when I was really angry at Graham. The time he yelled, with blatant spite, 'lukyguy' at me for more than a few minutes. Maybe some of my readers remember that. I think I just chalked it up to him being a dick and reminded myself never to talk him again, but it's easy to forget when a friend calls you up months later to go out for coffee. However, it's really easy to remember the low points in our friendship now. Sour grapes, I think.

I can't stop thinking about how he didn't really want me to visit him at Kcollege. Whenever Graham comes up in conversation, and Graham's present disposition towards me, our many common friends remember to me how much he was complaining about me, invited, going to visit him. What a burden it was to have me drive 4 hours to see him. How annoying I am. But again, that's just me finding faults in an ex friend that hates me, which is too easy to do no matter who it is. If I were on the opposite side, I'd look at me and perhaps think, I'm annoying, poorly read, and pretentious beyond my intelligence. I wear bad shirts, I drive a car with a dumb license plate, swoop and generally suck. (I don't mean to cut the list short, but I can't be too self deprecating without feeling like more of an ass).

Anyway, today I had 3 of my 5 classes. Bought a $160 French book. It hurt, paying for it, but now I can do my homework. Ate with Sandi, Derrek, Pete, and Seth. We talked about comics, our respective majors (Spanish, Advertizing, Journalism, and English) and the bullshit our colleges put us through. It's rough all over, Cherry.

I conquered my sickness. Did I wuss out and go to the doctor? No, I crawled under my covers and let my white blood cells do the dirty work.

Also, I drove to Kansas City with my dad.
My grandparents (91, 92) are losing it. Poker explains it all. Grandpa dealt 6 cards nearly every time. Grandma couldn't remember which part of the game we were at, always asking for more cards...These people have been playing 5 card draw for like 70 years and now they don't remember how. Still, I managed to lose...

(The Plaza)

Walking down to the plaza, after my dad was asleep, and getting a cafe au lait at Latte To Go was certainly the best part of the trip. Later in my wandering I saw, gaurding the bridge, two larger than life terra-cotta Chinese soldiers that were actually built for the first emperor of china and buried for a thousand years. Touched them even. I had seen them in NYC and thought that was special (after learning about them in Art History), but being able to walk around them and scrutinize made them more real for me. Also, it was especially great because they were just out in the open. No sign explaining how cool or even what they were! Walking to the plaza this year reminded me of walking to it last year. Also alone last time, I wandered the much more lively streets. There was a band playing on every corner and on a rooftop I heard The Violent Femmes playing 'Gimme the Car Dad' and later, 'Blister in the Sun'. I remember giving $5 to someone, busking, playing Elliot Smith. That was when a) I thought elliot smith could do no wrong and b) I had money.


The driving really wasn't bad except that it was another 13 hour drive. Actually, the worst bit of driving I've been doing lately was tonight when I had to dodge a dog walking in the middle of Milford Road... It should be careful I guess. I honked and maybe it learned it's lesson.

I had some weird fever-dreams last night. I drempt that that they sent up another shuttle to dock with and check on the space station. Everything was fine until the shuttle tried to detatch. It was stuck somehow and they had to do a spacewalk to manually pry it free. He broke something important but didn't tell anyone. Then, he got the shuttle to detatched but upon reentry it crashed. :( Also, I remember a piece of a dream where this woman was on TV talking about how it's important to be loyal to dogs. Her's especially.

I'm usually really excited whenever I hear new news about the new golden compass movie. Recently, they announced the who the director would be (Anand Tucker who produced the girl with the pearl earing but hasn't directed anything I've seen) and announced that Phil Pullman wants Mrs. Coulter to be played by Nicole Kidman. However, I was sad to read on IMDB that they're not usuing Tom Stoppard's screenplay anymore (Shakespeare in Love, Brazil) and instead are using Chris Weitz's (About a Boy, Antz, and...The Klumps...). *sigh* I liked about a boy, but I hope weitz doesn't try to make it funny. or cute.

So, I'm still sick and ickily sick: strep or something. Going to KC this friday to see my grandparents. Ickily is a word. More soon.

--Later that day--

A lot of bad news on the radio today; all I did was listen in between naps. 91.7 Michigan Radio

Got sick, slept like a rock, and am feeling better already.

On NPR, I heard a music critic compare and contrast Coldplay and Dressy Bessy. The reviewer really prefered Dressy Bessy, which was the obvious answer. What kind of self-respecting, snobby art critic would recommend Coldplay (with the most popular album in the english-speaking world) over a decent and somwhat obscure pop band?

I've been staying at my dad's girlfriend's house for the last few days. Despite my dad's belittleing comments about school, it's better here than at home in milford. I don't get yelled at so much. I might even want to live here, which has been offered many times, but it's too far from milford and I don't have a car when my mom and bob aren't on vacation.

What's good is Taaja living in Wixom.

Wished monica a happy birthday today. She read the book following the Sabrielle series that was never supposed to come out. She said it was good. Also, I warned her off of Broken Flowers.
Don't see it. It's about this guy looking for a son that may or may not exist. Ever read a mystery without finishing the last two chapters? That was Broken Flowers. The critics lie.
Wrote one word of a song today...slow goings for slow brains, but it's alright because things've been going well lately. Girlfriend likes me despite my recomending of bad movies. And my awkward sentence writing...

Xanga's pretty embarrasing as far as blogs go, but that's not why I've started a new blog. It's actually becasue of the cool new blog feeling I get. I know nobody has the URL for this one, so I can more freely write.

I started one somewhere else last year and rachael b. just happened to find it the next day because she'd just opened an account there too. I had writen just one post in that, a freewrite on music and the instruments I want. I got very dr. seuss by the end of it and I was abashed knowing somebody read about my idea for 7 different harpsichords of different dynamic values. (You could write fff, ff, f, mf, mp, p, pp, right on them!) Yes, I know it's dumb and that's what made it so embarrasing. It's fun to just think of dumb stuff, but not fun to have it read.

Been eating lately. Writing short ideas out. Music listening (Olivia's stuff I haven't heard yet). Reading articals.

Say, do you know what a wandering genie is? I do.