a million faces pass my way

The last time I was here, I forgot to mention some things that went down. I think I forgot to mention this one as Jamie updated about it so thoroughly in her own blog. Be that as it may, Jamie and myself took a little trip up to Poughkeepsie, NY to see those zany Good Charlotte fuckers. Calling them "fuckers" will get me so many more hits to my blog! Anyway, we drove up there, taking our sweet time the whole way as to miss the Maine and Metrostation (which was successfully did!) and upon getting out of our vehicle, we were greeted by this lovely view. Hellooo Poughkeepsie!

And then we looked down and saw pink boas and GC gear. Were we surprised? Nope. Not at all. After all, they are on tour with underage boys.

The show itself? Frustrating. Joel said, "This is the part of the show where we play whatever we want.. let's play a song you've never heard live before," and Benji said, "No, I'm going to shit on that good idea. Let's play some old song that will make all your non-fans in the crowd happy because that's what I'm all about." Then he proceeded to shit on everything good and holy on the world. I went into that show thinking the worst thing I would experience would be the somewhat terrifying, yet young crowd, but instead left promptly after full of Benji rage! That's not really anything new.

Moving on to other things...

Gizmo went to the vet and stole $50 from me. I tried to give him away, but nobody wants him. So here I am, stuck in Jersey with an unwanted dog. The sacrifices I am forced to make in this world are atrocious!

So, on the 20th I went to DC (duh) and on the 23rd, I went to Baltimore. So, I drove through Baltimore to DC on a Wednesday and then that following Saturday I made the journey again. The trip to Baltimore is a lot shorter. But I might just think that because I had very recently driven to DC. It was pretty cool because we didn't come down alone. The Gazela Philadelphia came to Baltimore to hang in the Harbor with us. Thanks for the company, Gaz!

Harbor views!

From the Uno!

Zaaaaang!

Happy Labor Day :)

those who are dead are not dead they're just living in my head..

Where's Waldo?

I went down, went down to DC... If you're cool enough, you know the song I'm referencing there. If not, oh burn, you're so uncool! Anyway, the stars aligned and something good came out of something bad! Instead of playing a show in NYC, I went and visited the Natural History Museum. I had been IN it before, but never gone through it. I know that doesn't really make sense. On class trips, we always went to some other museum and when there was free time, I never went into that museum. I remember all the steps and the elephant, but the rest of the museum was all new to me! And I have always looked up and said, "I want to see the Hope diamond.." but never had the opportunity. Now I have! And apparently, someone stole it. I don't know who... After we spent a great deal of time looking at arrowheads and geology, we left and went over to Chinatown to have something to eat at a place called "Pot Belly". It's kind of like a Subway or a Quiznos, but a lot better. Things are all fresh and delicious rather than like flat and weird. What happened to Subway? It used to be pretty good. Why are their sandwiches so flat and gross now? I don't get it! Anyway, there was a huge Urban Outfitters across the street. We didn't go in, but I was in awe of it. haha After that, we went back to my friend's house and he played some songs on piano and cut up a "tasty treat" for us (a mango) for the car ride because we were going to go see Buddy in Manassas. Yeah, I went to Virginia too. And that was fun too. There was a lot of nice people there and I had half of a really good turkey wrap. By the time we got back from that adventure, it was pretty late and I had a long ass drive to take on, but he still played me a song on guitar so that was pretty nice... But, that's pretty much the summery. Better than playing a show in NYC? I guess I'll have to wait and see what it's like to play a show in NYC first!

baby, come back, you can blame it all on me

Last week, I switched my schedule around and was able to hit up the beach with my family. Though, at the time, it made for glorious gloating purposes I'm beginning to wonder if this will be the last time I make a trip down to the shore this summer! Oohhhnnnooes..

Mango Mojito. A burst of tropical flavor with the classic mojito mint after taste with a mystery stick! You can't beat that... with a mystery stick...

The clouds have been pretty lately. Or maybe I just noticed them more this week. I don't know. Either way, I love big pretty billowy clouds. And anyone that's from this area knows you have plenty of time to admire the skyline when you're stuck at this particular light.

A cloud is a visible mass of droplets or frozen crystals floating in the atmosphere above the surface of the Earth.

The branch of meteorology in which clouds are studied is nephology.

The color of a cloud tells much about what is going on inside the cloud. The color of my skin tells much about what kind of week I've had at work. And I'm frequently many shades of bruise. A leopard of bruises. Considering I got whacked in the forehead with a steel rod the other week, it's fair to say that Aeropostale may be the death of me...

And now I'm going back to my now SECOND ever episode of the O.C. Is it just me or does Mischa Barton always sound like she needs to blow her nose?

I guess this is my political post

I saw this courtesy of my brother, Wilder, and it sort of scared the shit out of me. So, of course I had to share it. This shit just freaks me out. I don't understand how it doesn't freak everyone out. I suppose something similar could be whipped up about Obama, though. I don't know. I just get so emotional. I get thinking about the one person that I lost because of this stupid war and then I can't listen anymore. And then you see those numbers and I can't even fathom how other people can survive...

we're not delivering pizzas around here

It's been a decently long time since I've done any blogging. I mostly blame it on the unfortunate passing of my camera, but I got a sweet new phone(team approved!) with a nice enough camera in it that I can continue to document my life while I decide on whether to get a new camera myself or wait until Christmas. Who am I kidding? I want boots. I'll wait for a camera! Anyway, here's what's been missed:

My nephew, Samuel, turned a whole 1 year old on the 20th of July. I was hesitant about all these "Aunt" duties, but I killed it this year! Beatles shirt? Robot hoodie? Black rock tee? A xylophone (not pictured)? Once he learns how to do 8 rock squats at a time, in a row, he's going to be EPIC.

I was volunteered/deemed/became the 2nd merchandise flow person at Aero. Rachel heads it up, but apparently I'm her number two. It's kind of stupid. Then again, what about my job isn't stupid? Be that as it may, pictured above is the kind of little surprises I get during my day at work. You never know what you may find in any given box of clothes!

This is Arygle Gargoyle.

This is Argyle Gargoyle if you're Nathan.

On a walk with Gizmo in the Mt. Pleasant Cemetary across the street from my house, look what I stumbled upon. That's right, George Harrison is buried in Millville, NJ. I would never have guessed that. I would have thought in the UK or Bangladesh or something. I'm sort of upset with myself for not knowing this.
But I think I was a lot more upset about this. Spiders in this area are really getting out of hand. I mean, I THOUGHT that the neighbors moved, but now I can see that they were evidently eaten by a huge mutant spider.

I love Gizmo!

you know, people have quirks

As previously mentioned, my dear camera has passed on. Being not only a great team member but an awesome eugoogoolizer, Eavvon wrote up a touching memorium that I HAD to share...

"Olympus was never respected as the deity he should have been. At times he viewed the world through a lens of optimism, at other times, scathingly dim, but always honest. His workload was often intense, yet he approached every exposure with dignity, and made the best of each opportunity. I remember the holiday season he was first introduced to us all, and the joy he brought his partner, Jenellifer Ogo Oboogie, Rodriguez, IV, and I find it hard to believe that bond will be forgotten.

I find it hard to believe because at the core of his metallic casing, was the focus of a true visionary, and his work is a testament to his ability to work with others, and help them to realize and express the beauty of the world around them. The memories that he has provided us with, speaks to his memory, and the love we all experienced, or rather the love that was captivated by his presence.

Olympus, good friend, purveyor of all things whispered through the bond of friendship, you will be deeply missed, always remembered, yet hopefully speedily replaced. Thanks for your contribution, your good will, and your marginal shutter speed."

R.I.P OLYMPUS

you won't live to see tomorrow

My blog has taken another hit. My camera broke. First Aero; now this. It didn't even really break in the traditional sense of the word. It just decided to stop working. It's not like I dropped it or anything. I took good care of it and it decided to die. I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised, though. It wasn't a very expensive camera and it got a lot of use. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about it. It sucked that it decided to die right before we saw Nicole Atkins play at the Fire. But that's life, I guess. I'm sure she'll play there again and the sound guy will get fired for being late to work and the monitors will break and she'll have to stand in the audience just a few feet away from me again real soon. OHWAITMAYBENOT! Double farts.

In other news, we had a photo shoot this afternoon with a new photographer. It was pretty fun, but apparently photo shoots are exhausting because I was so beat and not feeling very well afterwards. The way I felt didn't exactly make for a great performance on my part. And the sound quality coming from the PA was not sounding great to me. It sounded like I was singing through a megaphone to me. So I was ripping my throat apart to hear myself and to sound good. We tried to adjust the levels, but I wasn't that pleased with how I was doing. I felt rusty and tired and every time I moved it felt like my brain was hitting against my skull. Be that as it may, I wasn't going to hold up the rock. Show must go on! I mean, there was patrons down the road dying to hear our music while they ate their dinner...

Have I mentioned how much I hate my schedule?

I saw you and I thought you saw me

Due to unfortunate employment obligations, this blog has gone right in the shitter. I don't want to consistently just update my blog about the stupidity that is my job, so I'm going to try to talk about things that happened around my horrid work schedule.
Already July and I've actually made it down to the beach a handful of times. I made it my own personal mission to get a tan this year and it's not been easy. As pale as I am, I'm not the burning type. I do burn but it's never that bad. That being said, I do always apply sunblock because I'm not stupid and I don't want skin. I use a low number, but as low as it is, I get nothing. As a tan is nothing more than minor skin damage, any amount of SPF seems to protect me from any color at all. I went to the beach about 3 times and got nothing. So then one day last week I sat out on my back porch without any sunblock on and finally got a little bit of something. But to ensure it'll be more effective, I got some tanning oil. It has SPF in it and it's not much less than what I already use so don't hassle me, yo!Independence Day came and independence was lost. Well, not for me. Just for TJ & Lauren. Those two made their forevers official and we all got to come and enjoy the spoils! The wedding ceremony was long, but it was all worth it when we got to the reception! So snazzy! It's nice to go to a wedding that's not just full of family. I prefer weddings full of friends than tons of family. I know neither TJ or Lauren probably read my blog, but if they ever stumble upon it when they're googling their names... Congrats and best wishes, ya'll!I have nothing to say about this handsome beast, but OMG he is such a baller look at his collar! WHA WHA?!

there it is and there it isn't

Today, just like any other day, could have been the day that I died. The difference being that today there was an actual threat upon it rather than just the usual fear of a random satellite falling from the sky on my head or getting run over by a tractor trailer. Anyway, today at work things got crazupid. They got slammed Saturday night and things were left pretty messy so I was directed to clean up and had spent my morning cleaning up the front. It was pretty busy and there was two cashiers ringing (which there hardly ever is) and one big, long line. I was minding my own business and organizing the polo table when this lady up at the register starts to have a fit; yelling and screaming about being told to go to the back of the line. I guess she came up to the register and Katy told her there was one line, not two lines, and that she'd have to go to the back of the line since she was essentially cutting that whole long line. So the woman proceeded to call Katy a racist (the women were black and Katy is white) and say that every other time she's been in the store, there's been two lines. Even if that was true, that's no reason to throw a fit. No matter what the case, there was one line this day. So, she goes over to the other register where Rasheem was ringing (probably thinking she would get sympathy from him because he's also black) and he also tells her, again, that there's one line. So, she calls him a white washer and continues to freak out. Saying that she was going to come across the counter and slap Katy in the fucking mouth and all this craziness. She had a friend with her and her child in a stroller and her friend was laughing and egging her on the entire time. After a while of yelling and screaming and throwing a pair of pants and exclaiming they were going to tear the store apart, they stormed out. But not before her friend swung her bag, knocking half a row of graphic tees all over the floor (my work!!!). Katy called mall security immediately but when she went to the front of the store, the lady turned her stroller around and came back in and made a point of looking at all our faces and saying she was going to remember our faces and kill all of us.

So there you go. That's a terrorist threat and assault. That shit don't fly. Especially not in this day and age. And she not only said she was going to kill all of us, but she told Katy she knew where she parked and all this mess. So, then the cops were called and like every corporate person in Aero. Katy wanted to go home, but the other manager was out of state and a lot of people weren't being that helpful in general. The cops that came were absolute idiots. When they first arrived, one of them came over to me and in a cute little voice asked if I was the one that was causing all the problems. I humored him, which was probably a mistake. Because then he smartly asked me, "There isn't a height requirement at Aeropostale?" Rude. I wanted to ask him if there wasn't a hair requirement to be a policeman as he was baldly quite a bit, but I didn't need any fine for insulting a policeman. That being said, you can clearly see they did not send the sharpest tools in the shed. Not only were they stupid, but they were liars. They told an Aero corporate person that the ladies were escourted from the mall, but that was a lie. Later on, the ladies were hanging around outside Aero at the picture kiosk. I saw them. Katy saw them. We all saw them. And the police had told Katy that they got their names and that was it. I don't understand policeman.

Long story shorter, Aero closed early today. We put up a sign that said we closed due to computer malfunction, but that's not the truth! I was supposed to work 11 to 4 (or 6 - stupid on-calls), but I worked 11 to 3:30 instead. We actually closed about 2:30 and spent about an hour just cleaning up around the store. Apparently the big wigs at Aero kept calling after we closed to apologize and to inform us that they're going to send armed security to watch the store for the next week or something. Pretty crazy. But you never know. You don't know who is actually going to come back and kill people. And you don't really want to wait and find out. I mean, flip, I don't want to die at Aeropostale. How lame.

maybe better than bitching about Aero

Unfortunately I've been doing a lot of thinking about a dark topic; death. It's only human to consider our own mortality; especially following a loss of a loved one. Not to mention I can't even escape it while watching a new episode of Real World (I can't be the only one that was crying my eyes out watching that!). But anyway, I wouldn't say that Don the Pirate and I were super close. But his loss was jarring to me. I have known him as long as I can remember and had begun to see him more and more in the past few years as I became more and more immersed in the Millville Art District. He was good friends with my eldest brother throughout high school and, like with a majority of my two brothers' friends, he took on a sisterly relationship with me; one where he looks out for me and never hits on me. Which is something Jamie probably can't say about Don! His personality was a bit much for some people and his fondness of drinking could rub people the wrong way at times, but I never joined in on bashing him. He was a good person who provided me with my first opportunity to play out live during Millville's Third Friday and even made me a guitar strap. He was a sweet, unique guy and he'll be missed.

Not to be disrespectful, but this whole thing has put too many not-so-fond memories of someone else into my mind. Moving on is deceptive. You never really do. It's purely an illusion that you fool yourself with so that you can function. At least for me. When you haven't carried a weight for awhile, it always seems a lot heavier than you remember it being. I hate the pain I get in my throat and my chest when I think of him. I can feel the tears coming on and I fight them back, but the pain of doing so is really unfair. I've been successful at work on the most part (asides from one day when I had to keep going to the bathroom to breathe - but overall I've just been sad. I just miss him. I hate all this living I keep doing without hearing from him or talking to him. I hate thinking all the last things that I said to him. At random times I'll blurt something out extremely personal (like at a Borders open mic) and today I did that at work to a co-worker. This girl Rachel was telling me she wanted to do something with her hair and this naturally turned to talk about my own hair and how long it is. I told her that I had been growing it for years and I wouldn't cut it. And she said, "Is that the rock star with you?" and I blurted out that someone I was close to had passed and he had always wanted to grow his hair really long so I just stopped cutting my hair. She just said, "Aww" and went on talking about her desire to get highlights, but I turned quickly to fold shirts and busy myself. I was feeling incredibly uncomfortable. I hate when I do that. I hate how it just comes out without much control.

I know that this post is pretty dark, pathetic, and long, but I have to get these thoughts out of my head. Just in hopes that it'll help me to deal with them better. If not for my mental health, but for the well being of my nose. It's pretty tired of being blown (that's what she said). I apologize to my "readers". Don't hate on me for disabling my comments either.

what are you waiting for?

If you haven't seen "Get Smart", get smart and go see it. I know, I know, that was a terrible pun, but I couldn't help myself. But really, it's good. "The shit" if you will. Steve Carell is amazing. I may be bias. Possibly bias. Probably because Steve and I are bffs. We go jump roping and visit zoos with Eavvon and his celebrity bff, Dave, all the time. Don't be jealous omg!

was I that bad?

Yet again, I have dropped off the radar. Having a job is a factor. Getting jury duty was another. And suffering a loss sealed the deal. I'm still suffering two of those factors, but I was dismissed from jury duty somewhat painlessly. Asides from the things in my life that bring me down, I've been busy doing a lot of other things. The pictures below are an accurate depiction of my life outside of civic duty and Aero slavery:

this happened tuesday. read about it today.

Like the black 'n' white cookie, my ice cream represents world peace. If you don't watch Seinfeld, you might not understand that reference or understand what I'm saying. And if that's the case, that's sad. I hope one day you can understand that reference. Anyway, am I the only one that buys a coke with everything?
I don't know what Jamie's ice cream represents. I guess it represents how modern the Custard Corral is getting. It has orange swirl custard AND pretzel cones. It's not just some hokey ice cream stand with goats. It also has rides and wet benches. Best recognize!
Whatever our respective ice creams represented, they were delicious and were just what my ailing throat needed. Yesterday, I spent most of my day hardly able to speak. Today my throat doesn't burn and I can speak! Was it my immune system that healed me or perhaps it was ice cream!? EH? EH?

And he smelled like cookies

So, I had things I wanted to blog about. Like my summer cold, missing Hello Tokyo in Philly last night, and yummy ice cream, but what happened to me today about takes the cake (or the ice cream) and it must be blogged about immediately! So, today at work it was pretty hectic. There was a family emergency with the store manager's son and she was going around trying to find coverage for her and the visiting assistant manager from North Jersey stayed like 3 hours longer so that another visiting manager could come in. Be that as it may, at points it was just me and the assistant manager. It started to get a bit busy and things were getting a bit messy in the store. During a down moment, I was cleaning up the cami table which was in completely disarray. Meanwhile, this man, who had been in and out of the store all afternoon with his daughter, asks if his daughter can use the changing room. I let her in and come back to my work and he starts to talk to me. Starts off by asking if my hair color is natural. It's a pretty casual conversation mostly about his (probably) 12 yr old daughter and how he doesn't want her to dye her hair and the like. I figured he was just bored, but I did think it was a little suspicious that he persisted on talking to me. Even more so when he asked me if I worked weekends. And even to the point of asking me how old I was. And, to add to the creep factor, he's surprised at my age and says he would have thought I was 18. Which would have been fine. Everyone says that. So, I leave to ring other costumers up and whatever and he comes over and asks to use a pen. When the customers leave, he slides me that cute little number pictured above. Tells me that I can email him and let him know when all the good sales are. I tell him I can just add him in the system and they'll email him with coupons and all the deals and he says that I can do that when I ring them up, but that that's for me. And I was just like, "oh, thanks.." in complete shock. Then he asks me if I have a boyfriend and I said that I did and he asked me how long we'd been together and I said, "long enough" and he said that you never know with those things, etc, etc. Despite the fact that this man was more than likely old enough to be my father, balding, and had once been married for 11 years (I know, because he told me!), he was hitting on someone that was barely his daughter's height while his daughter was shopping! What kind of father does that?! He was going on and on about how his daughter comes first and when his wife got a boyfriend he made sure that everyone knew he wasn't going anywhere and all this bullshit. I mean, that's just creepy. That's beyond creepy. That poor girl must have been so embarrassed! I mean, I was trying to help her find shorts and hoodies and her dad is trying to get a date! Unbelievable. I still can't believe that dude. Yuck.

And don't forget, he thought I was 18 before I told him my age. bkaoiajdofiasjd

someday I'll laugh about it

Our lovely Lisa had a birthday on Friday. But celebrations of this monumental moment in Uptown history actually began on Thursday. Unfortunately, it coincided with the start of me not feeling so hot. I only worked 3 hrs, but I felt like shit the whole time and I wasn't in a joyous mood when it came time to leave for Philly. Why did we go to Philadelphia? To celebrate the birth of Lisa and the beginning of summer with an olfactory stink fest at the Rilo Kiley show at the Electric Factory. From the moment we got in line, horrible smells abound; Jenny Lewis wannabe's and their boyfriends who smell just like the thrift stores they bought their outfits from, the waitress who carried her tray as proudly as her body funk, and the bathroom that I honestly questioned whether or not there was an unfound rotting corpse somewhere. Before Rilo Kiley came on, we had to suffer through not only bad smells, but stinky opening acts. Benji Hughes, a drunk, overweight Jim Morrison who even took his shirt off for the last song to give the ladies a thrill. Which in fact left Jamie pregnant, Lisa with wet pants, and me with gonorrhea in my throat! And then Thao, a 3 piece band headed by a girl that sounded like a combination of Bjork and Cat Power. They were interesting for about two songs, then I zoned out and watched the light guy try to pick appropriate lighting for their music. After this, we went downstairs and were literally blown; by an industrial size fan AND Rilo Kiley. Despite playing a few songs I do not enjoy from their new album (and one they actually made me hate more by seeing it live), they were pretty good live. I often wondered how Jenny Lewis' vocals were live and she did not leave me disappointed. Chick has got some pipes. I've always been envious of her lyrics (well, on previous albums moreso), but I definitely was impressed with her abilities singing and on bass, guitar, and piano. Not to mention they definitely made the right choice with that robot chick. J&TY need a robot like her!Speaking of J&TY, we had a few shows this weekend. Friday we played at this cool place called the Auction House in Audubon, NJ and then we played a benefit show for the Hope Project in the mysterious land of Burleigh, NJ. As I had mentioned earlier, I felt like shit on Thursday and I didn't really feel any better on Friday or Saturday. I felt worse everyday. Sore throat, congestion, headache, etc. And on top of that I was pretty upset about some internal band conflicts going on. I'm just completely relieved that it's Sunday and that shit is in the past now. I'm not exactly looking forward to this coming weekend, though. If this illness carries on through my whole work week and into the weekend, I'm going to be one unhappy camper.
But, be that as it may, I did enjoy spending extra time with Miss Lisa! But we've definitely got to go back down to Wildwood when I don't feel like death, it's not Senior Week and we have more time! Lisa, you already know this.. but.. I have to admit.... I toat love you!!!! And if you're ever wondering if you're cute, just open that card I got you. CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA :D

every single one of us was intoxicated

Some people see bowling balls. I see faces. And lava.

Some people see the lead singer of Army of Me. I see a poor fool who was tricked by a NY band into thinking they're from Australia! An idea stolen before it was realized! Woe is us!

Some people see a friendly note left on my car. I see a hilarious mistake. Can you see it? [Hint: It's not an awsome spelling mistake]