Category Archives: Dating

more problems with the dude upstairs…

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This does not bode well for my future living scenario. Scott came over tonight, as is our usual Tuesday night ritual. I made salad & pizza (ok, “made” is a little strong — I bought them & put them on dishes, does that count?) and we watched old “Sex & The City” reruns. Once again, there was much noise coming from the apartment upstairs — this time it didn’t sound so much like thunder, it was just sort of a general racket.

Around 10:00, I kick Scott out because I have to go to bed. He’s gone for about 2 minutes when my cell phone rings. It’s Scott. He’s in the parking lot, and he’s blocked in. I go outside to see what the deal is. There’s a silver BMW that has basically double-parked at such an angle so that all of my little nook’s visitor parking spots (there are 4) are all blocked in. Scott, ever trying to be the sweet non-confrontational guy that he is, figured that he would just try to squeeze his car around the BMW and work his way out. In the process of trying to do this, he hits a concrete retaining wall & gives himself a flat tire. I figure I’ll try to make some racket to bring the owner of the BMW outside. I intentionally set off my own car alarm & lean on the horn. No response. Which figures, because I live within earshot of the intersection of 2 major freeways, and the apartments are pretty well insulated so you never hear all the road noise. So I try hopping on the beamer, figuring I might set off its alarm, which surely the owner would recognize. No luck (even when I jumped butt-first onto the hood).

Finally I decide I’ll go knocking door to door, starting first with the people whose lights are still on (it is after 10:00 on a Tuesday night, after all). I try the guy who lives next door to me. He comes to the door in his boxer shorts — the TV is on & he looks slightly stoned. He says he doesn’t know anything about a BMW. Fine. Then I realize that noisy dude upstairs has his lights on. I run up there & knock. Pause. No response. Knock again. I see a shadow in the window next to the door & I see the light behind the peephole go dark & then light again. Still no response. I yell “Hello?!?!!!” and finally he opens the door. This is not the old dude who used to live above me, much to my surprise. This is a young guy, probably in his early 20’s, kind of cute in a vacant-looking sort of way. Actually, something about him reminded me of my brother. This is not to imply that my brother is in any way a vacant guy — on the contrary, he’s a very deep, sensitive, kind, warm-hearted soul. But sometimes he gets a look on his face that makes you wonder if anyone’s home.

Anyway, turns out that Noisy Upstairs Guy is a new tenant (I caught a glimpse of a box spring on its side in the living room — I guess that explains the noise factor) and naturally, yes, he is also the owner of the BMW. He comes out & moves it, and apologizes for the inconvenience, which was nice. Then I sit in the parking lot with Scott while he changes his tire. Sitting, of course, being the only thing I can contribute to a tire-changing scenario. I have a cell phone & a AAA membership, but other than that, I’m not much help.

One thing that struck me is that Noisy Upstairs Guy seems really young to have that kind of car, I’m guessing it was a college graduation present from Mommy & Daddy. In any case, that double parking business is rude as hell, and he better watch his little beamer yuppie ass or he’s going to find a flaming bag of Teenie poop on his doorstep someday.

Yeah yeah, I know, I get grumpy when I’m sleep deprived.

the rhythm has NOT gotten me, thank you, Ms. Estefan

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Scott & I went salsa dancing on Saturday night. It was cool, although I think it’s safe to say that even my best moves are mediocre. And I didn’t select appropriate footwear for the evening’s activities — the boots looked good, and I’ve gone dancing in them before & been ok, but I think they were just too heavy for a type of dancing where you need to be light on your toes. Mental note for next time. I also don’t know if I have the “salsa attitude”, whatever that is. That thing that some girls can do where it’s all about the hip-shaking and the dramatic hair tosses…. I just don’t think I can pull that off. At least not in a crowd like the one at the Century Ballroom, which is a little intimidating. Scott is really good, although he seems to be in some kind of self-deprecatory funk where he doesn’t think he’s any good, even though he is. (Boys are so weird.)

Anyway, I kind of weenie’d out on him early because I was tired & my feet were hurting, but overall I thought it was a lot of fun. The people-watching element there is incredible. And I love that it’s a smoke-free dance hall — I think this may be the first time in my life that I’ve gone dancing and not come home smelling like cigarettes. Very different, but so nice….

Oh, and I’m trying to decide what I want to be for Halloween. My first idea was a French maid — any excuse to wear a garter belt & thigh highs, basically. Then I remembered that I have a black t-shirt that says “I Bite.” on it, so I could pull off a vampire chick pretty well with that. All I’d really need to buy are fangs & maybe a black wig, so it’d be cheaper. And I could potentially still implement the garter belt & thigh highs somehow. I don’t know, what do you guys think?

More things I learned this weekend….

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1. I have no respect for men who take seven (that’s right, 7) sips to finish one lousy shot of tequila.

2. I should try to do a better job of keeping my lack of respect of said individuals to myself, lest I find myself being challenged to drink a shot of tequila myself. (Which I did like a big girl, in one big gulp, thank you very much.)

3. Falling asleep while wearing mascara is a bad idea.

4. I RULE at Trivial Pursuit.

5. For someone who considers herself to be pretty self-analytical, I’m not nearly as good at verbalizing my neuroses as I like to think I am. It’s kind of startling to realize that, even as exceedingly verbal as my life tends to be, there are some things that I just can’t talk about because I can’t find the words to put to them. I suppose I should work on that. Meanwhile, moving on….

6. Edward Burns looks more & more like an overgrown frat boy in every movie he makes. Scott & I just watched “Confidence” last night, and it was a pretty good movie, but god, that guy seems like he’d be a total prick in real life.

7. The biggest bit of news: Jen got married!!! I knew it was coming up sometime this month, but I didn’t realize it was this weekend. I just called her today to catch up, and found out that she got hitched on Friday. I didn’t even know her new last name. Turns out that it’s Arel. Which is a fine name in itself, but Jen Arel sounds an awful lot like the word “general”, so I’m pretty sure she’s going to hyphenate. Her maiden name is Sterling, so that should be pretty & not too cumbersome.

Hope everyone else had a good weekend.

14 year-old boneless contortionists & other fun

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I saw Cirque du Soleil last night with Scott. And may I just say, WOW! We caught the Alegria tour – my understanding is that there’s several of them currently touring around the country at any given time. I have to say, I really wasn’t at all sure that I was going to be into it, and I was totally blown away. It was a great show. If it happens to pass through your town, go see it.

Oh yeah, if anyone gets this, please fill me in on the joke. I think it’s funny, but I can’t explain why:

Badgers & Mushrooms

Be careful – that song will stick in your head for ages.

pending newsbreak

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Hmm… Weird. There’s actually a LOT of stuff going on that I’d like to write about, but none of it is really for public consumption as of yet. Not trying to be paranoid or anything, I’m just never sure who’s reading this.

Ok. So there might be news at some point in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned.

Last night, Scott & I went to Giggles comedy club in Seattle with his friend Jen. I didn’t know the guy who was headlining, but it turned out that one of the openers was Duane Goad, who is quite possibly one of the funniest comics I’ve ever seen. Seriously, that guy is solely responsible for the destruction of that evening’s eyeliner, because I laughed until I cried. I probably don’t do that often enough – those “oh my god I’m going to die because I can’t breathe” laughs. Awesome. Anyway, happy coincidence that he happened to be there last night.

I guess that’s about it. Right now tonight’s plans are a toss-up between Cirque du Soleil and salsa dancing. Hmmm… I’m torn. Oh well, we’ll figure it out.

Btw, big shout-out to Kris, who just accepted a full-time job at Goldsmith’s department store in Memphis (which is owned by Macy’s, so it’s a good, solid corporation). Here’s hoping that you get the chance to dance your booty off tonight, baby girl!

Weekend recap

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Friday night: Had dinner at Scott’s with his friends Ted and Jen, then we (minus Jen) went to Kell’s in Post Alley for a little traditional Irish folk music, booze & dancing. Well, not much dancing because I’m still a coward about that stuff, but Scott got me up there a few times. I don’t really know how I looked, because all I know is that I was spinning around an awful lot, but I think I’m getting better. A lot of fun. Ted seems like a cool guy.

Saturday: Scott & I went to see Phantom of the Opera at the Paramount. First time seeing one of the big Broadway musical productions, and I have to say I was pretty impressed. That type of music doesn’t really do much for me on its own, but seeing it acted out is totally different. Interesting how people dress for the theatre here in Seattle too. We saw people in everything from jeans & t-shirts to ladies in evening wear with their up-hairdo’s. Which I think is a bit much for a show that starts at 2:00 in the afternoon, but hey, what do I know. I think we were somewhere in the middle, wardrobe wise.

That night, we were both pretty drained after Phantom, so we got Greek take-out food for dinner, and hit the grocery store for a bottle of cheap champagne and the necessary ingredients for chocolate-covered strawberries. Ahh, decadence. We chilled out & watched “Sex & The City” reruns all night. Scott has now seen most of season 3 & the beginning of season 4 – I’ll get him up to speed on all of them eventually. So that was awesome.

Today we hit Shari’s for brunch – more greasy food to follow-up last night’s greasy Greek food. Yum.

Now it’s almost 5:00, time for the Sopranos’ rerun and then the season finale of Sex & the City. Perfect way to cap off the day.

I don't care what anyone says, I'm NOT going to the Macy's parade

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Looks like I’m going to NYC for Thanksgiving. My sister lives there, so the rest of us – meaning my parents, my brother & me – are going to descend on her for the holiday. They all came here for Thanksgiving last year (well, except Tracy, who was living in Italy at the time – and, surprise! – pilgrims don’t make for much of a holiday in Europe), and it was a lot of fun, so hopefully this will be good. I was a little stressed about it when the idea first came up, because I thought it was going to be overwhelming to have all 5 of us crammed into my sister’s tiny little one-bedroom apartment. But apparently my mom (smart woman) is vetoing my dad’s proclivity toward being cheap (“nevermind how uncomfortable it is, we’re saving money!”) and we’re getting a hotel room. Not sure how we’re going to divide up who’s going to be at the hotel and who’s going to be at Tracy’s apartment, but I think that as long as we don’t have 5 people sharing one bathroom, the overall tension vibe will be alleviated at least somewhat. Those of you who know me, know how much I like my counter space.

I also have a couple of options for Teenie-sitters, and even if everyone else bails & makes last-minute plans, mom has offered to pay for a pet-sitter to come in & check on her. (This is her way of bribing me, because I was trying to make excuses about why I couldn’t go to NY.) So the kitty will not go neglected while I’m off gallavanting around the Big Apple. Good to know.

Other upcoming stuff: Scott got us tickets to go see “Phantom of the Opera” on Saturday. I know the soundtrack because my mom used to listen to it all the time, but I’ve never seen it. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of the big Broadway musical/opera productions. So that should be cool.

Also going to try to hit Cirque du Soleil while it’s in town, and the Comedy Central tour with Dave Attell & Lewis Black is coming on October 12th, and I need to get tickets to that because I’m going to try to drag both Scott & Chris G to that one with me. Unfortunately, all ticket-buying plans are on hold until I get my next paycheck on the 15th….. Ah well, such is life.