Dry flakes, chocolates, and ice

Oooh, someone's at the door offering us chocolate. Hm.

Juliana and I are in Vegas for the weekend - we left this noon-ish, and got here a little after 5.

Oh, Juli needs this to look up restaurants, but I gave Natasha (Juli's cousin) and Jessica
(Natasha's friend) alpaca finger puppets.

Little Things

What matters most are the little things, not the huge gestures. :)

Song Nostalgia

"Helloooo Evanston!!"

That got our attention. I thought to myself, this guy's crazy. But then again, nothing could be worse than the last half-hour of truly painful open-mic performances we had to endure at Kafein while we waited for Dawen's set to come up.

I was sitting with Emily, Andrew, and Lilian (I think - Lilian, if you weren't actually there that night, let me know and I'll amend), sharing a brownie fudge sundae or some other delicious dessert concoction that seemed synonymous with Kafein, I'm sure.

The performer was Scotty Iseri. Five seconds after he started, we realized this wasn't just any open mic performance, stumbling over words, melodies, and chords. This guy was GOOD. His lyrics are witty and poignant, comical and honest. This guy had a message! We sat entranced for 15 minutes.

I bought his CD afterward - it's possibly one of the best $7 I've ever spent in my life. I listened to the album (a live performance at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival) non-stop all summer, which was the summer of 2004 - right after graduation - and what I've always referenced as one of the best and most fun and relaxing times in my life.

Just this week, I popped the album in my car, and that summer came flooding back. Isn't it funny how music can do that? What did his songs bring back for me? TAing biology aka working 3 hours a day and hanging out with the TA girls. Emily getting me cupcakes and balloons for my birthday - bought in downtown Evanston, and schlepped one mile up to Tech. Following Dawen to every single open mic he played at. Thinking someone was getting physically abused in my apartment when they were actually...ahem...enjoying themselves. Meeting Amber Benson at the Chicago Wizard World Convention - to which Lilian had to drive me, then pick me up, with Chris and Ike in tow. A fudge brownie a la mode melting on the plate and us trying to eat it as quick as possible so it didn't overflow the plate (we failed). Ravinia. Frantic trip to the ER to find a quick fix for laryngitis. Late night runs to JK Sweets. Running out in the rain, in shorts and a tank top. Running home at 2am after playing Dynasty Warriors at Emily and Andrew's.

"If you ask me for my autograph I promise that I'm not gonna be one of those stuck-up kind of famous people cuz you're helping me out with my feelings of insecurity."

It's all the same vote

It's that season again, where experts and reporters get together to talk about how the latest votes will go, and how that will effect the ultimate vote.

I'm not talking about the Presidential Primaries or General Presidential Election. I'm talking about American Idol.

I was reading this article on MSN about David Archuleta's hopes of winning American Idol this year, and it felt strangely familiar. Didn't take me long to figure out that the analysis Andy Dehnart does on Archuleta uses the same strategy and analysis I hear and see time and again on the presidential primaries (and especially on the Democrat side, but minus the mudslinging).

Its focus was on strategy and personal appeal of Archuleta, and provides analysis on the viewers in the Idol world (as having short attention spans, so the fact that Archuleta is peaking right now is not a good thing at all), as well as suggesting Archuleta not perform as well as he is capable of so he can "improve". True points, such. Why should a singer who's improved dramatically be lauded when their end point may not be as great as the starting point of a great performer? Thus is the problem with Idol, as the article states. It doesn't highlight talent, it highlights talented drama queens to keep things interesting.

This makes me sad Danny Noriega was sent home. He would have spiced things up.

All said and done, David Archuleta's got my vote for the primaries, but let's see how he does in the general elections.

Buried under books

There are 5 books stacked on my nightstand, three in my backpack, three in my car (recently borrowed from the library), one in front of my computer in my room (Asimov's "Foundation"), and a few others piled in random places.

I've definitely hit that threshold in reading where it seems hopeless to finish all the books I've lined up for myself. The good new is a lot of these books are "honor books", meaning I can return them to the library when I'm done (I've given up on buying books - why do it when you can borrow them? Keeps your room from cluttering up and is way more economical - I need to start living like a starving grad student). The bad news is one of the longest books I'm reading (a Martin book) is due back by the end of the month. This one I might end up buying.

So many books...not to mention DVDs to watch, and songs to learn...