I need to tell someone this...

Which is why I have a blog! In general I will not write about work because of the nature of what I do, but I think the world needs to know that I spent all day yesterday doing paperwork while squatting in not my office, and am spending much of today working from home because my office has no heat and a skunk infestation. It was definitely a Happy Monday slap in the face when I got to work yesterday.

Maybe I'll Come Back

Perhaps I'll come back to the internet? I have school-esque work again, so I will have procrastination needs again. Except I really can't procrastinate too much, or there will be no school giving me school work...

So if I come back, am I allowed to delete old posts that I have carefully avoided looking at for a year and a half? The terribly written ones and photos that now seem painfully awkward? It's my blog, so I make the rules, but I'm debating what my rules are.

Pausa

An update for those of you still reading:

I went to my camp for Memorial Day weekend. It was cold and rainy until the day I left, but I loved it anyway. I rode 12.5 miles on Saturday and saw some fiddlehead ferns I want to learn to cook and my great grandma's house. I also went wine tasting with my parents for the first time and officially started summer with an ice cream cone from a seasonal stand with my Grandma. Sorry, no photos, I forgot.

Sunday I gave away a bunch of much loved possessions and cried a bit. Graduation + sorority = tough.

Monday was Memorial day so I barbecued and did nothing useful at all.

Yesterday I rode 18 miles, including some crazy hills. Yay!

Today I had lunch with a friend who used to be my boss, and then went to work for my last day with the munchkins. They made me cupcakes and two cried when they said goodbye. And then I spent an hour making clothes for four people out of plates, duct tape and plastic bags and the screen on my camera briefly came back to life (it is blank again now). This is my best one:




I should be a seamstress - check out that trim at the top and bottom and the fit of the dress. But in reality, I'm done blogging for a while. It is a really busy time for me emotionally, even though I have absolutely no commitments. I'll put up a few photos of graduation because my school is so darn pretty and I know there are some family and practically family members reading who will want to see a cap and gown shot, but other than that I think I am done until I have something important to say, such as a job to announce, and I don't want to jinx anything on that front. I'm really excited about a prospect I found yesterday...

Until next time peace, love and thank you for the letter,
Erin

Green Key

Every term we have one "big weekend" when Friday classes are canceled (sometimes even officially!) and everyone makes time to relax and party. Green key is in the spring, all about hanging out outside, eating BBQ and seeing bands, so clearly it is by far my favorite big weekend. Therefore I started celebrating on Wednesday with pre-meetings dinner with my pretend little sister in the house and a couple other big sis / little sis pairs. Thursday I bought fantastic hot pink clip pedals for my road bike (and shoes and some other gear I couldn't afford but wanted) and made an idiot of myself trying to get used to them. And by that I mean I sprawled across the road with my bike on top of me twice. The first time the only person to see was a middle aged runner. The second time I got up just in time to see an S&S car come around the corner. I decided to stay on the side of the road for a minute and try to figure out the whole unclipping without falling down bit while standing still. Of course the officer driving by is a buddy of mine and when he recognizes me he puts it in reverse so he can come back and heckle. Yes, it is Green Key, I'm sober and falling off my bike. I promise I won't need a ride to the hospital later, he leaves and I spend another half an hour riding in circles getting the hang of using clip pedals. That night I hung out with Smash for a while and some fellow ex-social chairs from next door and across the street. We had some serious celebrating to do, and it was wonderful.

Friday I was up quite early, failed to get coffee with the San Diegan (she fell asleep, I got hungry, she went to Rutland, etc. etc) and went out to lunch. Around four I ran into one of the social chairs from next door who was just waking up and going for a run to "cure his hangover" as I was getting bikes on my car because my pretend little sister and I wanted to go to Vermont for a ride. We did 14 miles! Not particularly fast, but respectably quick considering the hills and how new we both are to road biking. Then it was block party and dinner and bocce balls and hanging out with alum friends and dance parties! Yay, I love alums! I've never had that much fun at an 80s themed dance party. I stayed up until it started to get light talking by the fire with an alum friend from home who I miss all the time. And then four hours later Beascock came into Gemma's room where I was sleeping on the couch and said "get up, you have to pick out the meat" and thus began a fantastic Saturday.

On a side note, I love that my friends 1) don't care when I come into their rooms at 5 am to sleep on their couches, 2) do not question when they find me in each others' room, and 3) wake me up when the promise to, despite knowing how bad I am at waking up.

And so we went to the farmer's market and the co-op and bought delicious burgers and veggies and potato salad for a BBQ. Of course when it came time to start the grill a few hours later I couldn't get it to light, so with the help of my alum friend's muscles we borrowed a grill from next door and made burgers and eggplant and mushrooms (eww! fungus) and peppers and zucchini and it was a great start to the afternoon. Then I did a beer run for my pretend little sister and found Hascker-Pschorr in the cooler and did a little jig in the store, much to the amusement of the beer man (who I know well) and the steaky boys buying all the 40s they could carry plus the few Beascock held for them. So we continued home, chilled in the sun on the roof next door until we were told to get down. We went to a pig roast where I ate delicious corn on the cob (but no pork) and found a friend who had just returned from living in Berlin for a year. I brought her back to the house for another BBQ and then tried to go canoing with a couple people from the sorority, some guys from next door and the San Diegan. That failed (false advertising!) but turned into a nice walk through the woods along the river. You should see the battle scar on my shoulder from that one! I was compared to a peach and a few silly boys tried to go swimming but quickly realized it is May and we live in New Hampshire and that is indeed a silly idea.

The rest of the evening became decidedly low-key when it started raining and everyone got sleepy. I came back to the house, called home to wish Dad a happy birthday and made some more BBQ veggies around 8. I was just sitting around the house library with friends deciding what to do when power went out to campus and half of town. Fortunately I LOVE when the power goes out because everyone is suddenly willing to do fun but "dorky" things they won't usually do. A bunch of us played sardines for a while, then I played cranium and went to watch a friend put on a firestaff show. Eventually power came back and a movie was put on but it was gory and gross so I didn't watch. Today I overslept and was woken up by someone coming in to see if I was ready for fancy schmancy brunch. Oops! Fortunately I was able to shower and get all ready before the rest of the crew arrived, so I went to brunch at a very nice restaurant and ate delicious food. The rest of the day, and therefore weekend, was spent lounging and catching up with an alum friend and other people I haven't seen recently. Definitely a wonderful, fantastic and perfectly normal Green Key. 3 weeks until graduation.

Moving on

No, I don't have a job, no I haven't really looked for one, and no I haven't packed a single box full of clutter, but I DID just delete about 10 people from my buddy list and even more (in the form of mass lists) from my email account. Goodbye, people I don't talk to anyway. No more wasting of nanoseconds involuntarily reading your inane and misspelled away messages (did you know we read involuntarily? It's true. Look up "color stroop test" and try it on yourself / your roommate / a trained monkey and then feel really, really dumb because you can't name colors) and certainly no more wondering who the heck you are anyway. And why oh why do you ALWAYS leave your computer on with AIM running? Have you never heard about conserving energy? It's a good thing to do, you wasteful narcissists. Your away messages stink anyway.

Rituals take 2

Spring formal was last night. My camera screen died before dinner, so these are all the photos I have. Well, I have one more, but I don't feel a need to post a group shot of all the gentlemen from next door. Unfortunately My eyes are almost closed in one and I'm wearing a jacket in the other. Perhaps I can bum photos off other people to show you my dress / ability to keep my eyes open. And the lake! The lake we were on was beautiful!


So that's Presidente, me (in 3 inch heels), Gemma (in a 90's bridesmaid dress, corsage and all) and Beascock. We're not running the event!! Yay for senior spring.


And that's me and my date. And now I have to go entertain people.

What should I do with my life?

Anyone have any opinions on the subject? It is officially open for discussion, as I realized today that I am graduating Dartmouth in 38 days and have no stinking clue what to do next. Most of you know I am not big on over planning things (or planning at all according to some) but that period of time called "after graduation" which I have been treating as some intangible, abstract concept while announcing such plans for it as "moving south" and "saving the world" is approaching in five short weeks. I have all of those intervening weekends planned, and absolutely nothing to do once they are up. As of 12 noon on the 8th of June I have not one single concrete plan.

And so my dear readers, your thoughts? I'm open to - strike that - soliciting suggestions, particularly those which involve a method of supporting myself financially / leaving the continent.




AHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I'm doing it again...

That thing where I don't post because I feel like I have too much to write about instead of too little. So I'll start with today: I'm sick. Like, hold the phone I may die from literally coughing up the lining of a lung into my trashcan which is so conveniently placed next to my bed if I don't pass out from the pain first kind of sick. Aren't you glad you have THAT image in your head? You're welcome. I skipped a climbing trip, a West Lebanon adventure and dinner with friends to sleep half sitting up in my bed all day. However I DID manage to leave the house for lunch and have a conversation through my window. And now I'm awake because I slept all day, but back in bed. I think I'm allergic to Hanover. I had the stomach flu less than two weeks ago.

Illness aside, the weather here has been BEAUTIFUL and my skin is a normal color again, as in I no longer glow under black light. Yay for the combination of no classes, baseball season and not working much. Unfortunately this weekend we are supposed to return to more typical April weather :-(

And now onto a roundup of the shows I've been to in the last two weeks:

1) TOOTS and the MAYTALS!!!
Yes kids, I saw the man credited with dubbing the word "reggae" live! in New Hampshire none the less. Perhaps a few decades later than everyone in cooler places of the States / western world saw them, but it worked out for me. The show was awesome as expected, but a little strange for a reggae show for two reasons; 1) it was in an opera house inside a traditional New England town hall (good acoustics being the place's only saving grace) and 2) the awkward racial dynamics. The entire audience (minus one 12 year old boy there with his white mom and my Indian friend) was white. And a lot of them were sitting down. In an opera house. But I rocked out and had a wonderful time anyway. The opening act - the Fear Nuttin' Band - was surprisingly good too, but don't look them up on youtube. All the videos up there sound awful.

2) Public Access
I still don't know how to write about this show. I've been going to see them play since Jay and I became close 5 years ago. I remember a battle of the bands in our high school gym before even that. Public Access shows (at the same little dive in Albany) have become one of the few stable parts of my visits home over the 3.5 years I've been at school. This was their official last show. The line up consisted of their best friends from throughout the years and everyone went all out for one last time. Amazing show, amazing turnout of people I haven't seen in years and an amazing women-only mosh pit because Public Access has always had the most female fans of any punk band in the area. And we're all strangely short... Their set was both typical (broken instruments, drunk fans, Chris insulting the crowd) and huge. I've never seen that many people I know call for an encore so enthusiastically, but it had to be done, because they had to end with God Save the Scene, a song I will always consider an anthem of the Albany punk scene. That is the only way it could have happened, and it was awesome.
I know some of you don't like their music, but for the rest of you, head here and listen. You missed out on live shows but the music still rocks.

3) The Hanks
An indie band from LA. I can't post the details of how I know them, but I've been a fan since they last played Albany two summers ago. We chatted it up in the pizza place next to my favorite dive in Albany (same one I've seen PA at so many times, I should make a list someday of the people I've seen play there. It's pretty diverse and includes some favorite memories). I've kept in touch with the bassist on an off for the last two years (he's addicted to his sidekick) and so when he said they'd be in Albany again I had to go. The set was quite good even though they had no idea until loading in that the space was a small restaurant and they'd have to play everything stripped down. I'm totally into their new cd. You should click the MySpace link above and listen, especially to the track "believe". After the show we hung out at the bar and had a brief chat with a police officer whose little brother I know from shows. Good times all around.

4) Sunday Morning Chameleon
I had only heard one of their songs before the show, but decent shows are so painfully rare in the booming metropolis of Hanover, NH that I had to go. They played at the drummer's little brother's fraternity, which is oh so conveniently across the street from my house. The acoustics were less than stellar and the average BAC of the crowd was a little absurd, but the music was awesome and I worked my way to the front and rocked out, even after my friends left. I ended up with a goose egg on my forehead from some tall dude's elbow, but the show was worth it. I love that brief moment of recognition when you catch the eye of the random person next to you and realize you're both completely happy in that singular moment just enjoying the music. Lyrics were inventive, music was uplifting and the sound was very tight. I loved it.

So that is part of what I've been up to. I need to live somewhere with a better music scene than Hanover so these posts are a more regular occurrence, but before working on that I must get back to sleep, because I've been up for over six hours now and I'm exhausted. I hate being sick.

Get your apple juice off the bar

I said that.


It was Friday, definitely after noon, and I was trying to buy Allie some drinks, and then she threw her chug-a-bottle-a' apple juice on the bar AFTER I had ordered her margarita for her (rocks, with salt). And then I called her out, she got embarrassed, and I saw someone I know from my other job with the munchkins. We failed at afternoon drinking and left.


EDIT: then we both blogged about it.

The one kind of smoke I enjoy

I generally dislike smoke. I dislike the smell, the taste, the consistency and the lingering qualities of most types of smoke, and I spent enough of my Saturday nights during high school at punk shows in a particular Albany bar to have been genuinely pleased when New York banned smoking in bars. Still, there is one kind of smoke I love, and woodsmoke evokes so many happy memories and such a sense of contentment that the smoke factor seems to not even matter. So right now I'm going to bed all stinky from woodsmoke, and quite happy about it because I made a fire tonight and sat in front of it for hours. It attracted some sisters, prospies, gentlemen from next door, guys from the house two doors down (ok maybe they wanted to buy beer) and even friendly waves from an S&S officer I didn't know and a nod from an HPo officer. It was lovely. I also found money in the pocket of my jeans today, which makes any day better!

Tomorrow is supposed to be beautiful and I have absolutely nothing I have to do, so perhaps I will get around to posting about my super eventful week and a half. But if you just can't possibly wait I'll give you a preview: 3 states, 1 brutal illness, over 700 miles on the baby honda, some skating and three completely disparate shows. I really will have to post detail soon.