Marine Corps Ball

All righty--Tavo and I are headed to the Marine Corps birthday ball on Saturday. This is a new thing for me, she who was vehemently against proms, dances, etc. I went to Homecoming my sophomore year in high school, and prom as a joke after I graduated. That's it. No other dressy occasions in the life of Lini, excepting a bridesmaid dress or two.

But I found myself at Dillards trying on dresses all the same. And I've come to a firm conclusion: Dresses are very, very expensive. For no good reason at all. You only wear them once or twice, and you're done. Crazy.

As Tavo is out in California (still!!!) I decided to take pictures of all the dresses and see which one he likes. Now, keep in mind when you look at these--I'm extremely short. I'm not quite 5'1". This is why all of these look like I'm trying on mom's clothes.

Which one do you like best? What should I get?







These were my favorite four:


and after looking at so many pics of myself, I think I should lay off the pizza a bit. Ugh, why is exercise no fun and pizza so yummy??

Thanks everyone!

what a nice lunch!

This was me, just mere minutes ago...

Despite the frightfully chilly morning we had (I had on my hat, scarf, super thick wool sweater and I was STILL shaking) it warmed up to a gorgeous afternoon. I grabbed a sandwich, my purse, and took off for the great Piedmont Park .

I don't really have too much to say, other than it's about a fifteen minute walk, so I had an entire 30 minutes to just chill in the grass, watch everyone play with their dog, wonder what kind of jobs these people had that let them play with their dog at 2 pm on a Tuesday, then pack up and go back to work. (btw I decided that they were all dishwashers in 24 hour restaurants--so even though I had to work on a beautiful afternoon, it wasn't as bad as being an all night dishwasher)

I had half a roll of smarties for desert.

I had eaten the other half as an appetizer on the way to the park.

and....I saved one of those small packs of peanut m&ms for myself, back at the library. I knew I would probably need a bribe to come back inside...

it worked!

Happy Tuesday afternoon, everyone.

Hamster Dance

Went to celebrate Tavo's parents anniversaries last night and was treated to very exclusive showing of the Hamster Dance, among other amazing feats of dancing and mass mayhem! Fantastic!

This is my first uploading of video (and streaming is blocked at my job) so I'm not sure this is going to work...but I needed to try!

it's not SanFran, say "the city"

I am a big fan of posting as soon as the experience happens, but this week I have been a complete bag of lazy. So here it goes, direct from my journal; My first week in SF:

"Hopefully the next entry will be on my badass PDA and won't actually have to write with my hand. Seriously, we had a fun day yesterday. Met with Dan and Amanda, ate waffles, then MARTA'd to decatur. Had a great time, did the Beer fest on the square. Finally volunteered and luckily got the ABITA table, AWESOME. Saw a bunch of friends that I haven't seen in awhile ***OMIT***** Dan got wasted, I went back to the house and crashed landed Dan while the girls got cat food. J, A and I went to Village Pizza in Cabbagetown. ***OMIT****

Last I heard we were flying over Wichita, KS. We watched Evan Almighty and then an episode of The Office.
Salt lake City, Utah. I can't imagine I got too much time here. I should look at my ticket. Ok, Skymiles registration, I got to do that.

Ok, San Jose looks really far from Livermore, why they don't fly me into Oakland. Hmmm.

Plane is rocking and rolling, I saw the wings move a good bit. Salt Lake has got crazy white hill/mountain things. I was watching some star TV guide type show while we were bouncing around. I put the iPod back on despite the ban of electronic devices since we were landing. I am not dying listening to some crap show, where celeb groupies compliment Vanessa Williams on her "ageless beauty".

Fuck that. Gimme Harborcoat, gimme 'You Got Me', gimme Radiohead.

the only green in Salt Lake is the golf course.

Now I am at Dick Clark's American Bandstand restaurant. I was with joslin at one of these in Chicago on the flight back. Getting the Cajun burger although my gaze is arrested for a quick second at the Chocolate Brownie Orgy. Hell yeah.

I sa a guy with a tatto kind of like mine and I thought what I'd look like in 20 years. I can't be fat. Americans won't be fat in 20 years. If you are fat, you will be out of date, dead. We are going to have to slim down. Not only physically, but consumerism, debt-wise, etc"

Of course, I stop documenting right here, all I got left is the most recent object of infatuation:San Jose airport is cool but a hike from where I am supposed to be for the next two weeks. So, I get a shuttle for $100 and this guy named Singh drives me out. Not too conversational, oh well.

I am stoked to be in Cali and take all the cool hills in. Finally get to my place and get checked in. I ask where the nearest food joint is and, I knew their was going ot be a problem when she responds: "well there is a COSTCO an exit up on the highway". NO JOKE. There is nothing out here. A gas station about a mile away, but that is it.

I grab a taxi and head into 'town' 15 minutes away. I go Ancestros, a Mexican joint and then to my what I find is going to be my new Cali home away from home: 1st Street Alehouse. I have made it a point to try beers I have never heard of: Alaskan Amber, Snowshoe Porter, Pliny the Elder, El Toro Stout, Grizzly Brown Ale, Black Butte. Not all on this one night, I have gone a few more times, whew!

So I end up getting a rental car the next morning, which was a fiasco, but whatevz. Work goes well, some issues -but that is a whole 'nother blog-. Finish work at 3:30, yeah, I said 3:30, fucking californians. So I head out to San Francisco and am just blown away by the beauty of the drive there. Oakland's hills, the bay bridge, the shock of pacific cold air right when you get off the 580. And there it is, looking like a real-deal treasure island, SF.

Parked the car after negotiating the terrifying hills and parking in a space that was too good to be true. Then a lady came out and said, "HEY that's my garage!"OOps.

I seemed to be perpetually stuck in Chinatown, but was able to find San Francisco Brewing Co. Had an amazing garlic burger and a slamming pint of...shit...forgot. But then had an Albatross Lager. Not impressed. Went back home.

Tuesday, I just went to dinner in Livermore and went back to my bar and BS'd with Miguel the coolest barback and the only mexican in the house. Kicked it with a guy named Paul and compared boxing to MMA. Then Brett Favre vs. Dan Marino. I am such a bullshitter sometimes.


Wednesday, went back to my bar. Watched my Rockies lose and just cried into my beer, which was delicious by the way. Snowshoe Pale, I think.


Thursday was the last day of class, so I headed to SF after class to go catch my girls TEAM GINA! Got to the city early so I went to check out one of its landmarks: CASTRO. I finally found a space on Guerrero about 8 blocks away. Walked up there and it was a mellow street, walked around, bought some stickers at the HRC and went to the oldest bar in Castro: The Twin Peaks.

Cool bar, not a great selection of beers, but the environment was cool. Old decrepit queens drinking gin and tonics and looking haggard as shit. Sat at the bar watching the Rockies once again do not so well. Got into a quick convo about operating systems and when I mentioned Vista you'd thought I yelled "ALL FAGS SHOULD DIE!!! Gays really like their Macs. They were all cool, except for my one mention of the 'V' word.

Actual signs in the Castro...the bottom of the second one says: tweaker.org WTF?

Headed out, got the 17th street and went to the Parkside bar where Team Gina was to play. Had a Prohibition Speakeasy Dark beer. AMAZING. This street by the way, is one kick ass street. it is very urban and young, it's like having Lenny's, Azul and the Righteous Room all on the same street(ATL folks you know what I am talking about). The bartender told me the girls weren't going on for another few hours so I finished up and went a few blocks down to Bottom of the Hill and had a Fat Tire Amber(not Flying Dog, but a local). Talked to a girl about her boyfriend's band that was setting up. Got into an argument about Tarantino's legitimacy with one of the bartenders. Had to double up efforts to not be wrong. I think I used the word 'diegesis'. Oh boy.
Left there and on the walk back was mesmerized by a gorgeous Ferrari 355. I was standing there in love when the owner walks out. We kind of had this awkward moment where he didn't know if I was a bad guy and I didn't know what he was going to do. We ended up just talking about the car. The place was actually a garage and I watched him drive it in. His buddy came out and he was impressed when I pointed out that the 308 on the lift was Magnum PI's old ride. The three of us ended up hanging out for five talking about the Citroen. Once again, I am such a bullshitter.
Went to the next bar and don't remember the name. it was very average 20/30 somethings with Red Sox jerseys. Shit. Had two beers, Liberty Ale and Poppy Jasper to distract myself from the cheers of the "wicked" fans.
Back to Parkside, paid my $6 and went to the smoking room with my new pack of Camels. Chatted it up with a bunch of people and even had Gina herself say "your the guy from Atlanta". GRANTED, I did post on their MySpace beforehand, but it still felt great.
Opening act was solid, smooth, sexy lyrics from, shit, I don't remember. It was ill though. Next band was Ice Cream Socialites. Fun, loud, out of control. And then, of course, TG kicked it rad.

I was downing water by this time, so much the bartender, Cassie, just left the pitcher on the bar for me. Hydration is good, but all the beer must have churned me up. So I would stand in the corner by the stage and rip ass and then walk briskly across the floor to get more water at the bar. Then I'd watch all the lesbian hipsters look at eachother with a accusatory query. RIOT.
I hung out for a minute after the set and chatted people up but just felt old. Not enough tattoos, piercings or tight jeans to be relevant. Whatever.

Friday morning, got up at noon, went to a movie and lunch. Wandered the endless shopping center, went home, ordered in. Basically, lame night.

OK, that is all I hope you enjoyed, and I promise to get some better pics up that I take with a real camera, not a cell phone.

-tavo

Tavo looks like a cute fuzzy animal

Doesn't he?

4 questions, 4 answers

4 Questions and Answers

Killing time on a Friday--am so ready to go home it's craaazay! Tavo is in Cali this week and I'm going nuts without him--I just kind of bang around the house. I've read about 4 books this week and watched PBS every night.

4 jobs you've had:
1- Waitress at a Casino
2- Chocolate maker / wrapper
3- Lifeguard (the most BORING job ever)
4- Librarian

4 movies I could watch over and over
1- Endless Summer (1966)
2. Dawn of the Dead (1978)
3- Amelie
4- The Graduate

4 tv shoes I watch (at other people's houses except for PBS)
1- PBS
2- Daily Show
3- Sex and the City
4- Seinfeld

4 places I've lived
1- Detroit, MI
2- Kansas City, MO
3- Myrtle Beach, SC
4- my truck for 4 months

4 favorite foods
1- Pizza
2- Spaghetti
3- Sushi
4- Beans with spices and onions

4 favorite colors
1- Green (but absolutely NOT hunter)
2- Brown
3- Blue (again, very picky on shade)
4- Red

4 places I'd love to be right now
1- with Tavo in California
2- Brazil
3- India
4- Thailand

4 names I love but could/would not use for my children
1- Chiquita (would burst into song at every turn)
2- Lucy (friend's dog)
3- Judas
4- Papaya

and Tavo hates "month" names, but I would totally name a kid "July" or "December" Those are awesome names.

You, gentle reader, post your 4 Q & A's for me!

Hooray!! Decatur Beer Festival!

We love beer--so it makes sense that we would especially love Beer Festivals. So when we found out about the Decatur Beer Festival we signed up ASAP...to pour beer of course!


Tavo and I were lucky enough to get the Abita table. We volunteered with our good friends Amanda and Dan--they got the table right next to us. All pics are courtesy of Amanda.


Dan is a Marine with Tavo...he's also waaaaaay taller than the rest of us. Too tall to fit into the pic, apparently.


Look at Tavo--he's got his extra cute, "I have beer and I'm happy" smile going on.


I just laugh into my beer. I don't know who the woman standing next to me is--she hopped behind our table and started pouring with us. I tell you, we are so irresistible, no one can really stand to be too far away.


And the post beer fest shot--we didn't have to clean up, thank goodness. Just hopped onto the train and went home. Sound asleep by 8:30 pm. We are all about the wild life.


I think I won't need to drink another beer for at least a few days...

finally uploaded some photos!

This is a random compilation of photos illustrating what I've been blathering on about recently.

For example--here's solid evidence that I am a broccoli monster:


okay--onward!

So, we went to Calavino's the other night and it was just fabulous!! That is, of course, until I decided to do too many shots and was kindly escorted home. But--I only have pictures of the good part of the night :)

Here I am walking--looking a little uncertain. "Tavo...I think I need a glass of wine. To unwind, you know?"


Ahh...here's that glass of wine! And some brushcetta to go with it, dolled up in a nice cigar box.



Tavo went for the Three Philosopher's (yum!) and pork tenderloin.



I just dabbled around and ate appetizers all night. The antipasto was delicious--Tavo ate all the meat and I snuck the cheeses and veggies. Ahh, wine and good food. We look much more relaxed now.



Okay--one more pic. This one we look good in.

are you ready for me Atlanta City pools???

*This is obviously not me--pic courtesy of dkimages*

Yesterday was my first day at my new job! Hooray for working in midtown, hour long lunches spent strolling about the city, munching a sandwich. I got quite a bit done, set up meetings with all the key people, and things are going swimmingly en la biblioteca.

Talking about swimming--now that I get home sooooo much earlier (because I don't have to ride the stupid bus at all!!) I have started swimming at the natatoriums in the city. Got my annual pass and found a lane in the midst of elementary school swim lessons, and I was off! Kicking, splashing right back at the kids, working the old muscles...and I am in PAIN today. But it hurts so good... (oh so cheesy, I know)

After a lovely day and a nice swim, I came home and started pouting. Oh yes, I can be quite spoiled at times... Tavo and I tried to make the gnocchi I'd prepared on sunday--but the recipe had said to only boil the potatoes (whole potatoes, not slices) for 15 minutes. So, we had hard potatoes in the mix. It was a mess. We each ate one--Tavo smiled and said, yum? I spat it out. (pout pout pout) Then we got in the car and Mr. Tavo took me out to eat in celebration of my first day at work!! Yeah!! (you know that's what I wanted all along)

We went to R. Thomas Dude...YUM!! I've never been there and it is just so yummy and there are parrots everywhere!! Tavo had quesadillas and I had...the fish tacos. Now, I'm one of those loser vegetarians who eats fish every now and then, and wow--I'm glad I decided to last night. So yum. We also had a "Banana Boy Toy" smoothie--Tavo ordered it, blushing as he said it--but it was fully worth it. YUM.

So, a very good monday had by all.

"What becomes of the broken hearted..."

Someone had a broken heart on the 6:24 am train headed eastbound. Radios with speakers are not allowed on the train, but sometimes songs are played loudly enough through the headphones that you can hear them, if the train is very quiet. The car I was on was mostly full. A few empty seats, but not many. Everyone was silent, which I thought was strange when I got on--then I heard the music. A man was sitting, with his earphones around his neck, just staring out the window.

Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
It's not warm when she's away
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
She's gone much too long
Any time she goes away

I sat down and listened--the whole song played. No one spoke, everyone just sat and listened. The man just kept staring out the window. Next song came on.

Everybody plays the fool sometime
There's no exception to the rule
Listen, baby, it may be factual, may be cruel
I ain't lyin', everybody plays the fool
Falling in love is such an easy thing to do
And there's no guarantee that the one you love
Is gonna love you

ahh...I started to notice a trend. I look at the guy with the headphones...doesn't look like he's slept at all. I wonder if he's been on the train all night? I want to say, I'm sorry man. Or, it'll get better. But I don't think those random words from a stranger would help, would they? This song was playing when I got off the train at my stop. He stayed on, just staring out the window.

Oh, girl
I'd be in trouble if you left me now
'Cause I don't know where to look for love
I just don't know how

no more tequila, ever

I feel like Lindsey Lohan or something. On friday, went out with Tavo for fabulous dinner/celebration of life at Calavino's and it was FANTASTIC! The wine and food was delicious. In fact the wine was so delicious, that I had a couple glasses. And decided to throw caution to the wind and take some tequila shots that our good friend bought us.



Not a good idea. I don't remember too much after that--from what I've been told, it's probably better that way. Someone stage an intervention!!

Wasn't I supposed to learn this in college? Like sometime 10+ years ago? sheeze.

Time to go camping....hopefully

All right--Georgia has been suffering from a severe drought all summer, so I shouldn't complain about the rain--but I wanted to go camping! It's supposed to stop raining tomorrow afternoon, so we'll see. I have been checking www.weather.com every 10 minutes just to make sure.

Besides the drought, it's also been 100+ degrees for months--and the heat has finally broken. I even crocheted a scarf last night. Now that it's gotten down to 80 degrees, I might be needing lots of scarves.

Here's a pic of me camping last year. See how happy I am? And this is before I cracked open those bottles of chianti (even while camping, one must maintain certain standards--fine wine and bud light, apparently)

I'm pretty sure that a maroon shirt probably shouldn't be worn with a red skirt, but these things don't matter in the wilderness.

Tavo does not particularly like camping per se, but he does enjoy building massive fires and burning most anything available. This is good because I don't mind feeding the fire, but the building part can be a bit painstaking without proper amounts of lighter fluid. I much prefer to sip wine and cheer him on.

Great fire baby!

So--hopefully we'll get out there tomorrow night! Have a great weekend everyone.

no sleep night, all right

Perhaps I should stop napping so much on buses--as it apparently destroys the night sleep. Have you had one of those nights when you sleep for an hour or two--then are wide awake for the rest of the night?

Tavo and I woke up around 2 am. He was tossing and turning, I was tossing and turning...finally around 2:45 he says, "I can't sleep." Me either. Neither of us really wanted to turn on the light and read, or drink warm milk (ewww) or any of those things that are supposed to make you fall asleep again. We just ended up talking...for the next 3 hours until we had to get up.

Surprisingly, I'm not really tired at all. (I'm sure that is in no way related to the eight cups of coffee I just drank) Turned out to be a nice way to spend a sleepless night.

*photo by Lilo Raymond

taking a snooze

In the mornings, on the way to work, I take a short train trip then a loooooooooong bus trip to get to my job. I catch the 6:55 bus to get out to the northeast perimeter of Atlanta by 8 pm. Now, one of the advantages of such a long bus trip, is the ability to take a snooze.

I used to not be able to sleep in cars no matter what. Tired or no--something about moving just kept me awake. This came in handy when our family would drive from South Carolina to South Dakota over the holidays (what--you don't vacation in South Dakota?) I would sit up front with Dad and talk away as we drove through the night on small, straight US highways. Did you know that after Interstate 90** was put in through North Dakota, they had to go back and put in a few curves and turns? Drivers would get hypnotized by driving in a straight line for hours and accidents were numerous. So, I used to stay awake in cars--but I can sleep in buses.

Greyhound taught me to sleep in a moving vehicle. You've never quite experienced hell until you take greyhound cross country. Days later, you are a zombie who has only had one chance to wash your armpits in the crowded station sink and has had to listen to the person in the seat next to you talking about poaching alligators with her boyfriend for the last 8 hours (true story) I slept!



So, this morning, I got on the bus and read for the first 5 or so minutes, then nodded off. About 30 minutes later, my dream startled me. I woke up and looked around. It was surreal--every single person in the back of the bus was sleeping. There were only about 10 of us, but apparently, we were all on for the long haul. Comforted, I stretched my arms, then settled back down for another good nap.

**Interstate 94--my mistake!

going bald

hmm...I have a rather large bald spot on the back of my head and can't quite figure out how to cover it. Can no longer just wear hair down, have to pull it into half ponytail to hide spot. Perhaps should invest in large hat collection.