"i am vulnerable, but i am strong and i am wrong sometimes."

FIRST OF ALL: i just had to kill a spider and it was horrible.
SECOND OF ALL: i can't stop listening to River City Extension. especially this one song, 'South for the Winter.' (well, and every other song.)

but that one song. the first many times i heard it, i only kind of liked it. it wasn't one of my favorites. compared to POWERHOUSES like 'Friends and Family,' 'Something Salty, Something Sweet,' 'Our New Intelligence,' 'Adrianne,' 'Letter to Lainie.'

but i realized recently that i have 'South for the Winter' stuck in my head like, all the time. and it's weird, because i don't usually listen to it that much.

so then like, yesterday, i started really listening to it. AND NOW I CAN'T STOP. i turn it up really loud in my car. in my house. on my laptop. and it make me want to cry. yes it does.

today in the car i was on my way home from the grocery store and i was listening to it. listening to the lyrics. and yep, almost started crying.

mainly the part where Joe sings:

"The sun's gone down on every hope and dream
I'm yet to figure out just what's been eating at me."

it's one of those lyrics that makes me realize, "HOLY CRAP I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE MY LIFE IS GOING."

but, i can't stay that way for too long, because 'Our New Intelligence' comes after that song. and that song makes me want to clap. and dance.

but, 'South for the Winter,' man.

ALSO, 'The Ballad of Oregon,' which is the song that Joe emailed me. OH MAN do i love it. i posted the link to the band playing that song and you should go back right now and watch that video.

BECAUSE THEN, you'll want to come with me to their next show. it's a sure thing.

also, i have gotten 'apology tweets' from both Joe and James in the band (James is the rockin' bass player) for having to cancel the Portland show last weekend. and that's really awesome.

SPEAKING OF BASS PLAYERS::::

my sister, Kara BOUGHT A BASS!!!! a bass guitar. it has been her lifelong dream to learn how to play the bass. and then one day last week i forced her to watch a bunch of random Crash Kings videos with me.

AND THEN she was newly inspired to learn the bass! because Mike is such a hottie! so, we started looking online and it turned out that one of her friends wanted to sell one!

SO, we drove over to the music store in Dover, NH, bought an instrument cord to connect the bass to the amp and also bought a 'LEARN TO PLAY BASS' book. and then we drove over to her friend's house and got the bass.

it's very beautiful. dark sparkly purple with silver. yeah, it's totally hott. and she started learning immediately.

aannddd.....she's a natural! for realz. by the second day she was rocking some scales.

I, HOWEVER, can rock Beethoven's 9th Symphony. which i am proud of say, i can now play on

1. recorder
2. clarinet
3. piano
4. guitar
5. bass

yep! it's a universal song. i taught Kara a little. she'll figure out the rest in no time.

it took us a looonnggg time to tune the bass. it came with a tuner, which was helpful, except it was kind of confusing. so, we also tuned it with the CD the book came with, and again with an online tuner.

Bass sounds great! came with an amp! Amp looks great. and now Kara will be the coolest person. i asked her,

JULIE: So, when you go out in public now, do you feel just a little bit superior to everyone else, now that you own a bass?
KARA: OH YEAH, definitely. A LOT superior.

she's pretty cool. we decided we're going to form a band. the next step is for me to buy a drum set and fulfill MY lifelong goal of becoming a drummer.

the other people in our band will be:

- Kara's friend Liz
- my friend Maria

it's gonna rock. a lot.

SO TODAY, was Father's Day! happy father's day to all those dad's who read my blog :) LIKE MINE. who i love so much.



HA. that's, Me, Kara, and my dad at Lake Louise! back many years ago. i love this picture. that was on our epic adventure back to the homeland. Canada. funnest trip ever.

i'm glad we got to spend Father's Day together before my dad goes back to Canada. :)


hm. what else.


last week i had this weird Crash Kings dream. i tend to have those. like my two dreams where Tony and I are doing tequila shots. that was weird. WELL THIS ONE, took place at an actual Crash Kings show. i was seeing them live. and Tony was onstage playing the violin and Mike was playing bass, but he was like 'the leader' of the band. and they were trying to end this one song for a big finish, and Tony couldn't get the time right. like, the time signature. and the two had this exchange:

MIKE: Tony, we're in 3/4 time!!!
TONY: ...Oh, I thought we were in Family Time.
MIKE: NO! It's 3/4 time.

family time?? i don't know what that's about. and then they were able to do the big finish. it was strange.

DID EVERYONE WATCH THEM PERFORM ON GEORGE LOPEZ?!?!!?

IF YOU MISSED THE SHOW, you can watch their performance right here. it was amazing, as always. and there are great shots of Mike playing the bass, which Kara was very excited about. i think they definitely seem more relaxed than on Jimmy Kimmel.

anyways!

soooo, last week Kara and i went to Claire's. my guilty pleasure store. A LOT. oh man, i love going into Claire's. and we tried on glasses for like, ten minutes.

and i ended up with a new pair of FAKE GLASSES!!!!!

so, to get you all up to speed: i wore a pair of fake glasses every single freaking day of my senior year of high school. this pair had no lenses in them.

yep. i totally started the trend A LONG TIME AGO. so, you're welcome.

AND! i bought a new pair.

and i had a photoshoot.

so, deal with it: i have lots of pictures.





AWESOME, right?!?!




i realized just before it took the picture that i could see Mike's reflection (from my desktop) in my lenses...



so then i did some crafty positioning.....and you can see all three Crash Kings in the lens! sooo cool.



ALSO, i got a haircut! goodbye FOUR INCHES. hello lots of layers!! i was kind of sad because it meant i was losing teal. but, i was gaining volume. trade off.




yep. kind of a hottie.




THESE were the ones i wore in high school!!!! EVERY DAY. my physics teacher called me '20/20' because, clearly, i had perfect vision. especially with no lenses.





(that piece of paper behind me is the Crash Kings signed set list from the Boston show 1/31/2010.)





AND THEN, i decided to test out the special effects....




i think these should qualify as a screen test for the next James Cameron film.








yep! that feature was called, "pop art." i think it came out pretty awesome. one of those last three is totally going to be my solo album cover. probs the middle one.


ANYWAYS! that's me being bored and living alone. :)

sooo. what to do now... hm.

i might watch some Friday Night Lights.

i have some business items to attend to while i watch. these include:

- repainting my nails
- repainting the plastic ring that kara won for me. it used to be bright blue. but then all the color rubbed off on my finger. and i just happen to have bright blue nailpolish. so, i'm going to repaint it.

ALSO, I HAVE MADE A BIG DECISION.

i have STOPPED importing my notes into Facebook. that means THIS BLOG.

i was so unhappy with the slowness that Facebook took to import these awesome, somewhat time-sensitive entries. SO, i have stopped the automatic import and will be manually importing them myself.

so, nothing will change for you, dear Facebook readers. i will promise to import them directly after publishing them here, on Blogger.

ALRIGHT! i'm going to get going. i hope you all are having a lovely day. had a lovely weekend. and are excited about the upcoming week.

WE MIGHT be getting a new resident today! monday! i don't exactly know when i am going to find out... but, hopefully soon.

OKAY! have a great day! a great week! a great moment! a great time doing whatever you are doing after this. :)

take care be well drive safe.


love,
julie