Snarkastic

Tennessee 41, Memphis 7

So far, the only downside to settling on the West Coast has been the soul-draining absence of SEC football. (Whatever, "University of Washington". Whatever.) Imagine my delight at flipping on the telly to find the Vols not only playing on a channel I could watch, but demolishing the Tigers. (Also, the stalwart ESPN makeup crew appears to have puttied over all the cracks on Lou Holtz's face this season. He looks like Ann-Margaret.)

Travelogue: Hurricane Ridge

Originally uploaded by Nastinchka.

It's Complicated.

I'm dealing with several moderately pressing issues. First among them is the fact that I came to Seattle completely unprepared for the possibility that I would fall in love with the city itself. That happened, and the creeping truth is that I don't want to leave. I got here Friday night, woke up Saturday morning, and have been telling myself "one more day" since. You do the math. It's going to be difficult to separate what's best for me professionally from what's best for me mentally, and obviously, if I did decide to stay, Big Evil and I would have some pretty messy drama to work through, and fast. I still feel like my fortune lies down the coast, but there's so much here that's good for me. How do I reconcile that?

So. By the end of the day, I could either be packing to leave or apartment hunting downtown. But I have a feeling where I'll end up: sprawled lazily on the floor with my Very Most Favorite Boy, watching a movie with one eye and the skyline with the other, and thinking, "One more day".

Dear Charlie:

Seattle is beautiful, man. Wish you were here. There's just one thing: I didn't see *any* state lines on the way here. What gives??

Love,
Holly

bridges & tunnels

Safe, sound, and rocking out with Big Evil. Love y'all.

Nothing Compares 2 U(tah)

My, what a big, flat country we have here.

Five hundred miles to the Pacific, ferry boats, and Big Evil. And if he thinks I haven't driven the entire way with A Gorilla Named Monkey strapped into the passenger seat and holding myPod, he is dearly mistaken.

More from das coast, once I decompress. Maybe.

I'd walk the plank, but there's no water. Anywhere.

I can't believe I had to spend Talk Like A Pirate Day in effing Missouri.

(garr.)

Station Identification

Car's packed, and with any luck will be fixed first thing in the morning. This time tomorrow night I'll be in Memphis with Catherine. The day after that is Lincoln and Erika if I can catch her, then Laramie and Erin, Boise and the Gardners, and Seattle and Big Evil, then down the coast to fame and abject poverty.

Donna tells me I won't get cell signal throughout much of the Midwest, which only cements my reservations about any part of the country from which an ocean is not reaily visible, but I'll check my messages when I can.

I feel like I should be saying something to mark the occasion, but I'm too busy panicking that I can't find my passport. More from the road.

boo.

Last weekend in Tennessee. Family reunion tomorrow, THE game tomorrow night, and until this afternoon, I was all set to flee the state like I'd been shot out of a cannon early Sunday.

So TODAY, my car's electrical system starts acting up in a way that makes Bill very uneasy. And I can't get it fixed till...8:00 Monday morning. If I didn't know better (and I'm not saying I do), I'd think this was a plot of my father's to keep me away from them Yankees.

I'm not gonna lie; panic has taken up comfortable residence at this point. eep.

"Dude, what's wrong?"

During my last week of work, business was so slow that we were reduced to huddling in the back office and Googling "backyard wrestling".

The highlight of the piece is the apparent shock and concern on the part of the cameraman. I mean, what the meth-lab blazes did they THINK would happen?

Once upon a time in the internets...

A night like any other, a message board like any other, and one very tangled web:

Total Stranger, 16:50: How do you make money in Knoxville making films, be it even just a little?
Total Stranger, 16:51: would I be more likely to get a response if I said I thought you were nuclear hot?

Nastinchka, 16:57: I don't make movies here; it's just my base of operations.
Nastinchka, 16:57: Nah. The nuclear hot thing's an inside joke (I'm from OR).

[Intermission]

Total Stranger, 21:45: It would freak me out if you knew the people I know in OR. The last person I ran into who shared my OR Connections was in the Czech Republic.

Nastinchka, 21:46: ........are you talking about Jesse? Because that would be truly frightening.

Jef, 21:50: you've got to be fucking kidding me.

[Fin]

En Core

Five years. Anyone feel safer?

See you in Callais.

So in a fit of ennui this morning, I made my stylist chop ten inches off my hair, then asked for the color wheel and pointed to "Rocket Red", because it was named after a spaceship. It turns out that rockets? Are very, very red.

Moooooooom!!

Now, this is just magical.

Hush, now.

Our generation is clearly starving for A Cause (despite no shortage of worthy totems), and it's to our discredit that we chose to get worked up about Facebook.

In the time it took for me to get to the dentist and back, this group grew by about three thousand people. (And that was not long at all. The drive to the office took longer than fixing my broken tooth. Of course, he checked the records, and this guy has fixed my right front tooth ELEVEN times since 1991, though the last time was in 1997, when I figured out how to ride a halfpipe without falling on my face. Also, I feel the need to point out that my dentist is a chain-smoking, handlebar-mustached, gold-caps sporting grandfather who has known me my whole life, that I will miss him dearly, and that his office is in the Fort, so next time you get thrown into a parked car playing tackle football in the street and your mouth hits the side mirror (seriously, ow), just head on over.)

Anyway, it makes me wonder, exasperatedly, what all this shrieking rage could accomplish if applied to, say, the midterm elections. As far as this outcry goes...I don't get it. It's so disproportionate to what's actually happening, and the number of times the word "gay" is being used as a pejorative term for the new features makes me queasy for our futures. If it's truly that odious, delete your profile. You joined Facebook because you wanted to connect, you update seventeen times a day because you like the attention, and if you say otherwise you're a liar. And yes, it would be nice to be able to opt out of the news feed, but kids our age are getting picked up with sponges half a world away in an unwinnable war. Where's the righteous fury for them?

Tell me you don't see it.

If you're not watching FSU-Miami....well, don't, because it's excruciating, but Holly Rowe must've burned down her stylist's house, and recently. Seriously, her hair is causing me physical pain, though it could end our dependence on foreign oil.

I ain't ever goin' back.

Roo-cky Top

Our boys are back, in a big, bad way. Suck it, Corso.

I bet he's even got a COmmie flag tacked on the wall inside'a his garage

As is our custom, Livia and I are bolting to the beach house for a few days. As is also our custom, we're driving directly into the path of a hurricane. But unless we get washed away, we'll be back by midweek....because the radio says em-effin' CHARLIE DANIELS is playing the fair Wednesday night, and if I can spend one of my verylast days Down Here (two weeks....can you stand it??) hearing Uneasy Rider LIVE, I can just about die a fulfilled woman.