Forget-Me-Blog

Um, we've all forgotten to blog. I think it's been a good couple months, and there's really no excuse. I will now make some effort to update our readers as to our recent happenings in Our House In Jersey.

Well, first and foremost, this Friday is the day. THE DAY. For the first time in 7 years, I will be witnessing live, in person - the band, the myth, the legend - Radiohead. Yes, yes; I was THWARTED 2 years ago when they played in Madison Square Garden. Two years before that, I was thwarted again, when a kind soul Fed-Exed me a ticket to their 2 dollar bill show, only to be stuck in upstate NY because I couldn't get a flight to the city (this was back in the "Summer of Radiation"). So I'm really hoping it doesn't monsoon on Friday (like Moray keeps warning me it might), because lord knows, Liberty State Park likes to flood. Somehow I doubt it will be just like Glastonbury. In fact, last time I went to a music festival was Lallapalooza (not to be confused with Meat-a-Palooza) back in 1996. I'm quite sure Metallica was headlining. I distinctly remember hating every minute of it - especially when I got dragged into a mosh pit for the Ramones, and being the shortest person in the crowd, having hundreds of crowd surfers land on my head because I couldn't reach them. It sucked.

However, despite past festival disasters, this year I'm clearly psyched. If I may reminisce... Picture it: August, 2001. I'd been living in the city for just under a year - and let me tell you, it'd been a rough year already, and it wasn't even September yet. Anyway, my lovely friend Kristin was very good about inviting me out to concerts with her - after 4 years in music school, I was (ironically) quite out of touch with modern music. Kristin took me along to many interesting shows at Irving Plaza, such as The Doves, Jeff Tweedy, DJ Shadow - all things I'd never heard before. Admittedly, being the music snob I am, I wasn't really impressed with most of the stuff we'd see, which was why when she asked me if I wanted to see Radiohead with her at Liberty State Park, I was skeptical. Sure, I loved "Creep" back in 9th grade. But I could never understand how this band still existed. I had vague memories of fellow students at school getting really excited by this "OK Computer" album, but I'd never heard it. But luckily for me, Kristin persisted, and on one toasty August night, we boarded a ferry at the World Financial Center and set off to witness one of the most incredible concerts I'd ever been to.

Yes, I know we're entering a world of cheeze, but I am not ashamed! I was blown away. The next night, I borrowed Kid A from Kristin and listened to it on my old discman in complete darkness. It accompanied me to work and back every day for the next few weeks. Next thing you know, I was trying to figure out how to play "Subterranean Homesick Alien" on the piano. I would call Kristin and leave her voicemails of myself playing whatever new Radiohead song I had learned. Poor girl. She had created a monster!!! A monster I say!

So you can see my enthusiasm. Hopefully they won't suck. Ha! Just kidding.

Anyway, that's not an update at all really, in fact none of this has even happened yet! What HAS happened, you ask? Well, after 3 years of 1099s, no health insurance, and frequently watching my poor co-workers verbally assaulted, I've left my graphics job. So I am now sitting down and learning InDesign (and maybe Illustrator if I'm really motivated) and doing a bit of copywork/transcriptions to get me through the summer. Every few years I have one of these moments where my brain starts pulling itself into a few different directions (should I be a musician? should I get health insurance?) - and I think this time the finances (or lack thereof) are starting to win out. We'll see how it goes, I guess.

We've had some wonderful visits this summer - after not seeing each other for well over a decade, friend Allison and her husband stopped by over the 4th of July weekend! Beth Ann, Allison, Sue, Heather, Aaron and I used to cause all sorts of trouble in high school. Well, as much trouble as 6 honor students and a getaway van could cause, anyway. It was really wonderful to see her again. Earlier in the summer Moray's dad and step mom June came over for a visit, which was really fabulous. We got to show them the Jersey sites, and this time there wasn't even a blizzard! Moray's now an uncle - his brother Cameron is now a dad, his little one was born at the end of June - very exciting. There's a great photo of teeny Isaac Alexander on facebook in a guitar-themed one-sie. Pretty awesome. I will ask for permission to post.

Beth Ann has introduced us to a whole new world of awesome Jersey friends, for which we are very grateful. A bunch of the locals came to our Starbucks gig last month, which was really, really wonderful. Aaron did an excellent job hosting and keeping us smiling, and I managed to make everyone sob in return. If I learned anything from that show, it was that I really need to learn some up-tempo songs. All in all, it was a good night, and Starbucks said we could come back any time. :D Plus we got a coupon for a free drink, so, that was nice.

I shall now end the longest blog ever.

Signing off,

Maria