July 27, 2007

Friday Shuffle - The Same, But Different Edition

I had this pipe dream when we moved. I'd thought that maybe, the massive increase in my panic attacks over the past seven years was in direct correlation to life in the crapshack in the Redneck Jungle, and that once removed, they'd magically disappear.

They haven't.

That said, they're better. When I'm anxious or, on the rare occasion, panicked, my first instinct isn't to run away from home, but rather to stay there. I've always been thankful that my particular version of agoraphobia got me out of the house instead of imprisoning me in it.

I had my first big attack since the move today. Not that it surprised me. It's the time of the month that leads to the attacks. My schedule was thrown off, thanks to everyone sleeping far too late this morning, which always puts me on edge. I woke up with a start at 10:27, terrified because Clara Jane hadn't woken me up She was fine. Just snoozing in after not taking a much-needed nap yesterday. Then Chloe, the Basset hound, had some issues walking up the steps, which sent me over the edge into sweaty, heart-racing fear.

She's fine. She just needs her butt popped again. Anal gland problems. They were full when my pal Jen the Groomer drained them on Tuesday. When they get overfull like that, the fill up again within a few days. It takes a few butt-poppings to get her back on track. Regardless, it's enough to throw me into a spin, especially when the time of the month is wrong, my schedule's off, and I've been over-busy.

We had some errands to run today, anyway, and I was thankful. I know I would have been okay at home, but I was relieved to have an excuse to not be there. We ran our errands and now we're at Cooperella for lunch. I thought we had arrived late enough to miss the bulk of the noisy crowd, but I was wrong. Apparently, today there's a meeting of St. Louis Shriekers Anonymous. I'm just glad that my kid is snuggled up beside me, quietly eating her turkey and swiss sandwich. Oh, and look who just walked in. The dad who, last time I blogged at Cooperella, blew a gasket because his son cast a sidelong, interested glance at a pink tutu. NO! Not for boys! NO! He's been here five minutes and he's already managed to lose the boy, who's probably in the boutique, trying on party dresses. I hope.

It's a good thing one of those errands I ran earlier today was to get my panic and anxiety drugs. Give me enough today to make me able to do little more than shuffle around, staring at my feet in oblivious bliss until the next few days pass.

1. The End of Medicine - The New Pornographers
2. Van Lear Rose - Loretta Lynn
3. Wang Dang Doodle - Koko Taylor
4. Wipe the Clock - Uncle Tupelo (who I've been listening to all day)
5. Something to Brag About - George Jones and Tammy Wynette
6. Take the Skinheads Bowling - Camper Van Beethoven
7. Mama Said - The Shirelles
8. Happy When it Rains - Jesus and Mary Chain
9. Novocaine for the Soul - The Eels
10. All He Wants to Do is Fish - The Replacements

Posted by Robin at 01:07 PM | Comments (8)

July 20, 2007

Friday Shuffle - Subterranean Homebound Blues Edition

I love people. I do. If I didn't, I wouldn't have thrown that big auction last weekend, right? Right now, though, I'm a bit peopled out. I've only had one day this week where I didn't spend time with at least one friend (Tuesday, when Clara Jane and the unholy beast that had morphed from the piles of unwashed laundry begged me to stay home). And that's good. I can say in all honesty that I have the best friends now that I've had in my entire life. I love that my life is such that I can spend a lot of time with my friends. I'm lucky that this shirt applies greatly to my life, and that I get to do the coffee-drinking and slacking with good people.

I think the past few months have officially caught up to me, because this week, when not out having a hoot, I've wanted to do nothing but sequester myself in the basement's rumpus room. Don't you dare come down here, either. I've got a fridge full of Vitamin Water and beer, nine hours of History Channel shows about doomsday, the antichrist, and Hell on the DVR, half a box of shortbread Girl Scout Cookies, and knitting to do. That's a lethal combination, my friends. Lethal to whoever makes the bad decision to attempt interaction with me while I'm rumpusing.

I've done some knitting, which I have barely done since we moved:

Elongated Corded Rib

Pretty, but methinks trouble lies ahead:
Trouble ahead
My yarnball is puking knots, which I'm undoing as I knit. If you interrupt me while I'm doing this, so help me, I'm taking you down with those wee little needles.

I used up all my nice with the auction last week. Julie, however, has so much nice that she'll never run out. This week she gave me a copy of the photo I so wanted to buy at the auction. And I would have, too, had Count Sassy not outbid me by $100. Instead I bought a purse and the notecards in the upper left corner. Yeah, you feel pity on me for having to settle for a gorgeous, hand-made one-of-a-kind purse and notecards so pretty I'm considering gluing them to a wall in the rumpus room so I'll have something to stare at while rumpusing and eschewing humanity.

I feel a little guilty about Julie's gift, as I made quite a display of whining and moaning and threatening to send large Minnesotans (I know a few) to Count Sassy's door to collect what I felt was rightfully mine.

I whine when I don't get what I want. Therefore, I have grounded myself to the basement to wrestle with yarn puke-knots. Seems fair enough.

(Julie also took some beautiful photos of the quilt she bought at the auction, made by Granny Viv. They're awesome, of course.)

Next break in History Channel's Satan Week marathon, I'll shuffle over to the bar for cookies and beer. No, you can't have any. I'm not sharing today.

1. The Hardest Button to Button - White Stripes(Yes! For I, too, have a brain that feels like pancake batter.)
2. Maybe Sparrow - Neko Case
3. The Consort - Rufus Wainwright
4. Get Up - REM
5. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots - Flaming Lips
6. Twilight - U2
7. The Swimmer - Sleater-Kinney
8. Head On - Jesus & Mary Chain
9. The Whole World - Outkast
10. Saturn - Stevie Wonder

Posted by Robin at 07:30 PM | Comments (8)

July 06, 2007

Friday Shuffle - Now Actually on Friday Edition!

Not that there's much to say, since all the action's over at Boob-Ha-Ha. Donations keep rolling in. I keep being astounded. Can't post them fast enough. You know the drill. It's a pretty awesome drill, all told.

How did I live before I got my MacBook? This auction would be really, really hard.

Clara Jane and I had a lovely, normal day. We went to the market and the coffeehouse up the street. I'm still blissed about how errand-running can be done in less than an hour now. Clara Jane's been a bit of a terror this week, and having a low-key day with some extra attention did us both some good. We made a Splenda birthday cake for my diabetic dad, which she decorated with lots of non-diabetic nonpariels. We don't know how it tastes yet, but it's definitely pretty. This is what she told me while we were making cream cheese frosting: "When we give Grandpa his cake, I'm going to lick frosting off of it and get it on my face. Then everyone will laugh and call me Frosting Face. Huh huh huh ... It'll be so funny!" Yep, she's definitely inherited our sense of humor.

Tonight, I'll be leaving the house when the hours are in the double-digits to babysit. I can't remember the last time I left the house after, oh, 7 PM. If all goes well, the babysitee will be asleep and I'll have a peaceful night of Boob-Ha-Ha stuff, knitting, and such. I took a nap. I'm ready.

I wish I could shuffle from my MacBook, but with the busyness, there isnt' one single song on this machine yet. Can you believe that? So off we shuffle to Beatrice, the elder Apple product of the household.

1. Good-Hearted Woman - Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson
2. Ride Along - John Hiatt
3. The River - Bruce Springsteen
4. Only in Dreams - Weezer
5. Hell Yes - Beck
6. Underneath the Bunker - REM
7. Tennessee Homesick Blues - Dolly Parton
8. There is an End - The Greenhornes (which is, like, the third time I've heard them today)
9. When Something is Wrong with My Baby - Sam & Dave
10. Get It Get It - Scissor Sisters

Posted by Robin at 07:23 PM | Comments (7)

June 30, 2007

Friday(ish) Shuffle - The Again with the Ish Business Edition

My blog mojo is seriously lacking these days. Fact is, there's really not much to write about right now. You can only read, "Omigod! I love my house! I love Prettytown!" so many times before you start lobbing dirt bike wheels at me.

You also don't want to read more about Murphy, who's been the crux of this week. In addition to Tuesday's escape, she had a bout of diarrhea, which christened one of the rooms in the house on Thursday. She's fine. I have a feeling she ate a monkey ball from one of our sweetgum trees. I'm not sure of this, but I wouldn't put it past her.

Last night Murphy made another blatant escape, this one while B. was letting her in the house. She had to investigate what is the new slightly irritating, unusual vehicle in our new neighborhood - a coach bus idling in the parking lot across the street. Actually, she chased the bus' driver, who lives two houses down from us. He's been on the road since before our move.

"When I heard her howl, I thought, 'Oh, she's beautiful! She sounds just like Nutmeg!'"

Not only have we moved to a quiet, pretty, friendly, easy-going neighborhood, it's also a neighborhood where every single person we meet adores Murphy, hound dog howl and all. This has several possible answers: 1) I live in a neighborhood of polite liars, 2) I live in a neighborhood of people with odd taste in dogs, or 3) I live in paradise which, contrary to the belief of some Missouri-side St. Louis Metro area, does not house dragons. Well, only friendly ones that'll give you a hand if you need a flame for s'more-making.

My knit mojo has returned. I'm sure you're thrilled.

I had my first guests yesterday who weren't immediately put to work. My friend Jill and her daughters, one who's a day younger than Clara Jane, came over for pizza, corn dogs, conversation, and the patented kind of noise that can only be created by three little girls having a good time.

There's still a lot of unpacking. Fuck.

I moved to a town that has a wing joint with over 50 varieties of flavors. Last night I had garlic parmesan wings, horseradish wings, and my first bottle of Stag, which I think means I'm an official Bellevillian now.

I'm about to unveil one of the things that's kept me away from my blog. It's big. Or will be, if I get a chance to get rolling on it this weekend. It's something to raise money for boobs. It's so big it requires its own domain name, much like my own boobs. Prepare yourself, and start putting away your pennies. You're going to want to part with them very soon.

Since I'm such a slack-ass, here's a bit of a musical bonus in addition to the shuffle. Devil Baby Freakshow, the band co-fronted by my pal Beqi, made their live radio debut yesterday afternoon, which had me dancing around my kitchen with a mop. No joke. That really happened. Because I've obviously moved to Pleasantville, as everyone keeps telling me. Anyway, you can listen to their set, along with the two-hour entirity of Dangerous Curves by clicking the "stream" button for the June 29th show. They're about 45 minutes into the program, but listen to the whole thing. Where else are you going to hear Wanda Jackson and a Shangri-Las record other than "Leader of the Pack"? It'll make your kitchen sparkle, I swear.

These songs, in comparison to "Dangerous Curves", will probably just make you shuffle around, staring at your shoes, wondering if anyone's peed in them lately.

1. Selfless, Cold and Composed - Ben Folds Five
2. Land of Caanan - Indigo Girls
3. We'll Meet Again - Johnny Cash
4. Holiday in Harlem - Ella Fitzgerald
5. You Don't Know How it Feels - Tom Petty
6. Friday I'm in Love - The Cure
7. River Knows Your Name - John Hiatt
8. Ana Ng - They Might be Giants
9. The Show Must Go On - The Real Tuesday Weld
10. Too Much - Elvis Presley

Posted by Robin at 09:17 AM | Comments (1)

June 23, 2007

Friday(ish) Shuffle - The Dots That Keep Me From Posting Edition

You know this is a busy time, right? Here's how much so: