[12:00] Jackie:“U.S. taxpayers would get checks of several hundred dollars from the government under a plan to stimulate the economy, sources said today. Sources on Capitol Hill and at the Treasury Department said negotiators agreed to cut checks for $600 per individual and $1,200 per couple.”
[12:00] Me: so… $600 per individual regardless
[12:01] Jackie: yea
[12:01] Jackie: lol
[12:01] Me: when do i get my check?
[12:02] Jackie: lol im about to read about this
[12:02] Jackie: that would stimulate my savings
[12:02] Me: that would stimulate my PS3 game collection
[12:02] Jackie: lol
[12:02] Jackie: ill stimulate you
[12:03] Me: i’ll stimulate you at the same time
[12:03] Me: stimutaneously, if you will
Check out her awesome blog, by the way, at http://her-new-obsession.com
Yesterday was the 14-month anniversary of Jackie and I. Some people think it’s silly to celebrate anything short of 6-month or year anniversaries; I am not one of those people. It’s the little things that make all the difference in the world.
For our special day, I opted to get us tickets to see Rain: The Beatles Experience at the majestic Academy of Music. For those of you who may not have known, The Beatles just so happen to be one of Jackie’s all-time favorite bands (right up there with MIMS and The Shop Boys… kidding). I don’t profess to be a Beatles expert; I think I’ve heard a majority of their catalog, mostly the later, trippy-er stuff. I like everything I’ve heard and concede that they were an extremely talented group. Let’s level for a minute: most cover bands suck. It’s a fact. Rain, however, definitely does not suck.
The first part of their set was the Ed Sullivan show era. I think everyone and their mother (probably their father, too) has seen at least a snippet of video from that famous set. The band came out in the same exact getups The Fab Four donned way back in the day (black suits, white shirts, black ties). They played video of original audience reactions on screens that flanked both sides of the stage and the effect was really engrossing. The played all of the bubblegum pop that they were known for in their early days and the audience (way back in the day and last night) ate it up. This part of the show was really neat and a great homage to the early days of the Beatles.
From there, it seemed to me that they went chronologically thru the rest of their career. I think the first song they played coming back from a very short (~5 min) intermission was A Hard Days Night. They nailed most of the tracks and then played some Sgt. Pepper era music. I think that’s probably my favorite Beatles sound. I guess it’s my inner hippie calling out. Jackie was smiling the whole time and singing along to just about every song they belted out, they even took a request halfway through the show from some guy who yelled it out in between songs.
There were two encores at the end of the show. The first one was a truly excellent version of Imagine followed immediately by Let It Be (probably one of the best songs every written). Then they followed that one up with Hey Jude and the place erupted into song at the “naaaaaa naaaaaa, nanana na” part towards the end. As they came out to take their bows, they were received with a standing ovation. They completely deserved it.
Jackie had a great time and so did I. So much so that I think I’m going to have to expand my Beatles audio collection (which currently consists solely of The White Album). We had a lot of fun afterwards in the parking lot waiting to get out with the droves of other people who attended the show, and hanging out afterwards at my house.
Happy 14, babe. I love you.
I can’t dance. I’m so white I appear as a glimmering star to distant galaxies.I was out this weekend with some people getting my groove on1 when I realized why I often times feel uncomfortable on the ol’ dance floor: I’ve never been able to properly express myself through, well, dancing.
Bear with me here: I’m sure with a little practice I could get good at it (like anything else in life) but I just can’t seem to get the hang of moving to a beat, which is ironic beings that I’m a drummer and all. Trying my hardest at it, which I’ve done from time to time, renders me looking like a fool (which I don’t mind) but also dissuades me from trying again since my best attempt is laughable.
Either way, I take it with a grain of salt. I’ll try a little more, and Jackie offered to teach me a few steps. So I’ll genuinely try my best at it because all things are worth trying at least once… except maybe heroine. Yeah, definitely not heroine.
1 - There’s no groove getting on or around me at any time
If I said I was still recovering from last night as I type this, I wouldn’t be doing last night any justice.
Yesterday started around 12AM when I let Jackie open her present, the ear-orgasm-inducing Bose SoundDock. She let out a shriek of glee as she opened it and assaulted me with a barrage of hugs and kisses to show her appreciation. We went to bed shortly thereafter and the day began around 11AM. I made her a breakfast of home fries (and nothing else… her request) while I had a cheese omelet.
Upon cleaning up the dishes and getting dressed, we went to Lauren’s house up near Willow Grove so that the birthday girl and her best friend could get their hair cut. We were in and out of there surprisingly quick, and after dropping Lauren off at home we went to Best Buy to surprise Christopher (Jackie’s cousin). Jackie ended up buying 20th anniversary edition of The Monster Squad, which we’re currently watching, and the 25th anniversary edition of Halloween (I’m so proud of her).
After all of that excitement, we came back to her house and took a short nap in anticipation of the festivities to come. We almost ended up going to Cherry Hill to hit up some new threads, but decided to swing by my house to grab some new clothes and whatnots. We arrived back at Jackie’s around 8-ish, showered and got all sexied up, and rolled out to Cavanaugh’s River Deck. It was a great time and we were joined by the likes of: Sylvia, Paul, Dorothy, Peter, Polish Adam, Adam, Bob, and Mark. Everyone was thoroughly thrashed by the end of the night and fun was had by all. If I can gather up all of the pictures, I’ll post them in a Flickr photo stream. We left at last call and ended up going to bed around 4am. It was a great time.
Today was spent recovering. Lots of naps, Powerade, and fast food. I had a great weekend and I’m pretty sure Jackie did as well.
It’s hard to know where to begin after leaving off writing for so long. My initial intentions for getting this domain set up was basically so I could have my own place to blog but ever recently I’ve either shirked the task or just downright did not have enough time. Well let’s hope I can change that all around. I’m trying my best to post at least once a week for the rest of the year. Call it a late New Year’s Resolution. Let’s get this recap under way…
Since last I blogged, a little over a month ago, quite a bit has happened. Nothing huge, but all things worth mentioning for memory’s sake: Two one-month-increment anniversaries on the road to the big one year, first small vacation with the lady, Jimmy Buffet concert with Denise, a promotion at work, some minor construction in the room area, and not to mention Jackie’s birthday tomorrow. Come with me on this journey…
I’ll follow the order that I listed them above just to keep everything nice and tidy, which puts us at the 8th and 9th month anniversary days. In case you didn’t know the day is the 15th of every month. How I remember is pretty cheap, but it serves it’s purpose as my personal mnemonic device. For those of you who’ve seen V For Vendetta, the day Jackie and I officially started going out was the fifteenth of November, so I modified it to say “Remember, remember, the fifteenth of November” and since then I have not forgotten. We’re usually pretty chill about out anniversary dates, as they’ve been pretty variable throughout the week (only a few have fallen on a party night [read: Friday or Saturday]). We usually just relax and watch a movie, have some dinner, and enjoy each other’s company. Two nights ago I bought dinner from Bennigans, gave Jackie a card (I’m such a sap sometimes), and we just relaxed watching some TV and playing around on the computer. Last night we also got together and celebrated Jackie’s birthday a few days early because her parents are leaving for a week of partying in the mountains (it’s their anniversary). It should come as no surprise to anyone who knows her that she had a Superman cake (for the 2nd consecutive year, if I’m not mistaken), which I’ll have pictures of soon enough. After the commotion died down and most of her family left or went to sleep we watching Employee Of the Month, laughed a bit at that, and then called it a night. As I was leaving her house two big motherfuckin raccoons ran by my legs about 2 feet from where I was standing. I’m actually not sure if they were big raccoons or not because that’s the first time I’ve ever seen one that close, but they were the size of small dogs and looked mean as hell. I’m just realizing this is my second run in with a wild animal I’ve never seen up close before in the past month, because when we went on vacation to Promised Land State Park…
…We ran into a big ass BEAR! There were two, actually, one cute cub which I snapped a picture of and a shit-yourself-big mama bear. Needless to say, well all slept in our cars that night. Let’s back up just a moment to the start of it… I had Jury Duty on the day we planned to leave (July 13th). I wanted to have that shit wrapped up way earlier that week, but things happen and Jackie and I didn’t end up leaving for the State Park until well after 6 (it may have even been 7). Regardless, we start trekking up there in her car blasting through traffic and listening to some tunes. We got a little lot lost but it’s all fun because we pretty much rule and made a great time out of it. By the time 11pm rolled around and we still weren’t where we needed to be we called Denise to let her know we’re hotel-ing it up. Turns out we were about 30-45 minutes off course, and we still needed to set up a tent, eat, and eventually get some sleep. We drove right in to a Best Western and shacked up for the evening. We hit the bar downstairs and had a few drinks. Jackie actually only had part of a 7&7, mainly because, well, it’s a fuckin 7&7. After that we went back up to our room and eventually went to sleep. Camping rules.
The next morning we awoke, showered, and rolled out shortly before 11. We bought a map, got our bearings, filled up the gas tank, and bounced our way to the state park. It was a nice ride through a variety of quaint little neighborhoods that you’d think only existed in movies. It was a great day to drive and just be outside in general… We arrived at the State Park shortly after noon. We set up our tent in record time and were surprised at how spacious it is. Made some lunch and just loafed around for a bit until we decided to play some volleyball and toss the disc around for a bit. Volleyball went ok… I’m not too good at it, but always willing to try again (on the sand of the beach, maybe?). After Volleyball Denise and I played frisbee for a bit while Jackie and Kathy talked, took pictures, and took in the scenery. Denise phone was stolen (naggers!), and that was the beginning of the end of that trip. When we got back to the camp site, we cooked up some delicious dinner (burgers and dogs, the American way) and tried to get comfortable. I found it difficult to do so up there between the bugs and lack of seating (bench vs. rock vs. ground). After making smores, one of our neighbors told us there was a bear cub in a tree on his site. We checked it over to verify he wasn’t bullshitting us and boom, bear cub. Now I’ve heard, along with everyone else camping, that wherever baby goes, mommy is sure to follow. We didn’t see mommy right away, because she was hiding from us (which in retrospect is kind of funny, considering she was like an 800 pound black bear… how do you hide?). We were all pretty spooked and it wasn’t until our fire died that mommy came out to play. After seeing that big MF’er, we decided to regroup and take some action. I intended to run right into the bear and skewer it with a plastic fork a la Troy, but everyone said stuff like “It’s a bear, you will die” etcetera, etcetera so I decided instead to just wrap up our food as best we could and head for the safety of glass and metal… the cars. Jackie, Denise, and I slept in Jackie’s car and Kathy slept in hers (only Asians could possibly sleep comfortably in Hondas).
We woke up around 6AM, packed everything up, and rolled out. We hit Perkins on the way out and I bought breakfast because everyone looked like they needed a pick-me-up, and then started rolling home. We arrived home in the early afternoon and dispersed. Total vacation time: 3 days, 2 nights. Total time Jackie and Andrew actually camped: 0. One night in a hotel, one night sleeping in the car. We rock.
The next big event was the Jimmy Buffet concert. There’s not much to say about it other than the fact that it was fantastic. I had a blast and got wrecked off of Landshark Lager (a thumbs up in my book) and huge frosty Margaritas. We were successfully able to sneak alcohol in and although I saw two separate instances of man-wang, I saw enough sets of boobies for it not to be considered a gay concert. Jimmy is good people in my book.
Another short but noteworthy mention is my raise/promotion at work. I won’t go in to salary details on here because I’m not trying to be braggadocios about what I make, but let’s just say I received a little over $2 more per hour and I’m in a position to have as many as one person working directly beneath me. Fun times, indeed.
I tore my wall apart two weekends ago and put up some new awesome shelves to store my books, CD/DVD media, and random crap that I didn’t want in my desk. This past weekend I also bought a new desk chair that’s no less than 114% more comfortable than the old one. What does all of this mean for raising my at-home computing productivity? Nada. But it certainly does look nice.
Last, but certainly not by any stretch of the imagination least, is Jackie’s B-day tomorrow. Now I can’t really re-cap it since it didn’t happen yet and I don’t own a flux capacitor, but it’s a pretty safe bet that it’s going to be one hell of a good time. There will be pictures, oh yes, there will be pictures documenting the whole evening and I’m totally looking forward to it. Last year at Jackie’s birthday was the first time we actually truly hung out and I started grasping just how awesome she really is. One might say that was the night that kick started it all, so it’s kind of a warm and fuzzy feeling for me being out with her again, a year later, only playing a better role in her life. The role of boyfriend extraordinaire (her words, not mine [ok, they were my words]). Look forward to more blogs over the coming weeks so I don’t have to write long diatribes like this any friggin more.
So little to say and so much time… Here goes something….
My name is Andrew to everyone who knows me and nothing to the people who don’t. I rarely feel inclined to write about myself and this small text blurb is no exception. I’m a film maker, of sorts. A designer, of sorts. A musician, of sorts. A photographer, of sorts. An armada of etceteras march behind these four generals.
The point I’m trying to make is that I enjoy art in all of it’s forms, and try my best to creatively express myself in every medium I take a liking towards. As always, things like life get in the way of being a non-stop idea factory, but that life is something that I’m thoroughly enjoying at the moment.
It consists of my beautiful girlfriend who I am very much in love with, a job that pays me well to do work that I would otherwise be doing for free, and a family and friends that I wouldn’t trade the world for. It’s safe to assume that I’m walking on air/over water/atop mountain peaks (pick one… hell, pick all three).