It's 8pm and it feels like it's midnight. This is probably for the best, as I have to wake up at 5am to work at the polls tomorrow morning. What was I thinking?

Today's been all about whoring myself out. By which I mean, looking for ways to make money. I had a brief interview at a temp agency. As we were saying goodbye and going through the requisite bullshit about how it was so nice to meet each other, the woman commented that "it's so nice when someone so educated is willing to work for so little money."

Today I also saw two episodes of the L Word. As much as the L Word occasionally makes my soul feel like it is crinkling up and dying, I think it's done a good job of keeping itself interesting and at least... not getting any more stupid than it ever was... over the years. The lifepsan of tv serieses (is that a word? I don't care) is a very important topic to me. Much more important than voting. Tomorrow will be the most politically involved I have ever been.

Today at the central library, there was a woman ahead of me on the escalator going to the fifth floor. She had on knee high boots and a beige coat. Some guy coming down the opposite escalator said to her, "You're a beautiful woman." And after that I noticed all the people behind him checked her out too.

A little later on, I sat down in one of the surprisingly comfortable rubber chairs. I was pretty engrossed in what I was reading, but eventually I noticed that there was a guy sitting right next to me and that his arm kept touching mine. It didn't bother me- probably because he seemed young and clean shaven and I was pretty sure the weird smell in the area was coming from somebody else. I liked feeling like I was sitting there reading with somebody, even if he was a stranger. After awhile he asked me what time it was. Then he asked if he could look at my G.I.Joe lunch box. He seemed a little dazed and talked like he had a stuffy nose- I started to get the impression he was on drugs. But hey, it wasn't all bad. And even if he was, maybe he liked the feeling that he was sitting there reading with somebody else too.

So last week my gaelic football team went to Chicago for Nationals and won the Junior B Championship. It's the first time we've ever won in my 5 years of playing... and in club history. I have a bunch of pictures up of myself with the trophy for your viewing pleasure. What with my super-stylish headband and the fact that the US Open was going on, whenever I look at the pics (which is often because I love myself), I imagine I've just won a major tennis tournament.

I really like Chicago. I like the El, the neighborhoods I saw, the size, the blues bars, the look and feel, the fact that we won... I appreciate the long sports history and the extreme weather. I might even say I love it, except I don't know it well enough... so let's call it infatuation. Looking forward to going back very soon.

In fact, if my parents hadn't decided their future kids should live near their family, I might have grown up in Chicago. Though odds are that the kid they ended up having wouldn't have even been me, and I wouldn't exist at all. So, on second thought, it's fine that I grew up in Pikesville.

The other big news in my life lately is vicadin. I had an apisectomy (look it up) earlier this week and thank god for vicadin. It's also um kind of fun.

It took 3 months, but I finally took a look at and updated my resume tonight. It's not perfect, but I think the fact that I'm not planning on applying for tech jobs means nobody will care about the specifics of what I did for the last 4 years. I certainly don't. Maybe that's why I had such a huge mental block about this activity.

But who cares. There's more important things afoot. Like, gaelic football nationals.

The Sonics know it. The sun knows it. Anyone who's ditching their pc for a mac knows it.

Everyone has a dog that they like better than you. There's no racial diversity. The whole gay pride financial fiasco. It drizzles gloomily from October until April without providing anything as satisfying as a lightening storm. Car-jacking is on the rise. The Red Sox fans cheer louder than the Mariners fans at Safeco. Even if the Red Sox aren't playing. Starbucks is trying to get us all to buy its yuppy music. Too many hipsters, poseurs, stupid tattoos, ipods, laptops. Everyone's too busy trying to be passively cool to make an effort to be your friend. Late night dining options are extremely limited. The bagels suck. Google is taking over. Kurt Cobain is gone.

I am bound to stay, so that this poor city has at least one resident keeping it real. But you- you would hate it here. So would your friends and acquaintances. Spread the word. And stop putting condos everywhere!!!

Citizen Cope. I wasn't too excited by his performance at Sasquatch, but maybe a huge amphitheater isn't the best venue for him. It also didn't help that the people sitting behind me kept making fun of him for being a white r&b guy.

I still like him though. Even if it's impossible to burn this cd on my computer.

One problem I've been having lately is that I'll put on music and after about 5 tracks, I'll be out the door. So I end up listening to the beginning of an album much more than the end. I hate when things are uneven like that. So I try to make up productive things to do to pass the time until the album ends. I'll tidy up, do some dishes, etc. Today, I was on track 10 of this Citizen Cope cd and about to go do some stuff. But I wanted to finish the album. So I decided to write a blog about Citizen Cope to help me pass the time until track 11 is done.

And... we're there.

My addiction to buying cds has been resurfacing lately. I've been trying to keep the impulse in check but today I bought an album called 1990s by the Cookies after just listening to a few tracks at Sonic Boom, under the influence of caffeine (which always makes listening to music more enjoyable to me), and having never heard of the band before. I also bought Nada Surf's first ep and John Vanderslice's latest cd. At least each was under $10 before tax.

Which reminds me, the Capitol Hill Block Party is AWESOME. Especially during the day before it gets all crowded. I especially liked Speaker Speaker, the Whore Moans, and the Blakes. I have restrained from buying any of their cds.

I asked at the music store if they were hiring and the guy said no, but I could still submit a resume just in case. According to the Stranger classifieds, the Lusty Lady is hiring someone for cashier/janitorial work. Hmm...

I didn't really plan to become a big accessorizer; it just sort of happened this summer.
I'd been a hat person for awhile, but that was about it.
Yet in my leisure time, I've managed to acquire two ties, a pair of gaelic football wrist bands, and a  belt. All are the first ever of my adult life.

I probably wear the belt the most, and I'm getting used to it. I keep having to remind myself that my pants are NOT snugger b/c I'm gaining weight. I'm also a little concerned about how my pants hang now- it looks not quite as natural or flattering. And there are these bunches in the front. Someone told me to push those off to the side, and that helps. What do people who wear belts do about that? Their pants always look like they're hanging normally to me. On the plus side, I think the belt makes me look slightly tougher (or, slightly less untough anyway). Plus, I don't have to worry that I am offending people b/c you can't see my underwear anymore.

Moving on- I love my wrist bands. Now that I'm spending more time outside, I'm developing some unusual tan lines on the forearms. They're kind of silly, I know.  (Or are they trendy? I can't keep up. Not that I want to.) But that makes me feel rebelious in the same way quitting my job makes me feel rebelious. People say, why would you want to do either of those things? Exactly. Yeah.

Onto the ties. This summer I realized you don't have to be butch to wear a tie. Anyone can do it! I especially appreciate my new zipper tie b/c I don't have to tie it. Plus, it's pink. Someday I'll have to wear it with my pink trucker hat... My black tie with the pink polka dots is also a winner, but I need to learn how to tie it.

Stay tuned for more blogs dedicated to my new fun stimulating hobbies. Like getting over 8 hours of sleep a night! Or maybe cooking chicken all by myself and being delighted that it really tastes like chicken. 

Yes, it seems I've come to the shocking realization that Harry Potter is not up there with Don Quixote, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Trial, and lots of other books that Kundera is making me feel bad for not having heard of. I'm reminding myself right now of the guy from Supersize Me. When I saw that movie I thought, what an idiot.

Maybe like the Supersize Me guy, I'm just overindulging. But it's so addictive, it's hard not to eat Harry Potter for breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner. Plus, I feel pressure to read the seventh book before I find out what happens.

These last two weeks I've immersed myself in Harry Potter. I started re-reading the fourth book, then I watched the first, second and third movies. Then I finished the fourth book, started the fifth book, and watched the fourth movie. I was trying to remind myself of all the plot intricacies in preparation for the latest movie and book, but it was sort of a confusing order to do things in.

The first time I saw the fourth movie, last year, it was two or three years after I had read the corresponding book, so I didn't realize how much they left out or changed. Neville isn't a good dancer in the book. The movie has no Bertha Jorkins, Ludo Bagman, house elf drama, or mention of giants. Also, the dialogue's a shade cheesier in the movies. I think I'd prefer if the movies were five hours long and stuck to the books exactly. What can I say, I'm a purist. 

I'm also in the middle of  a book called The Curtain, by Milan Kundera. This book is only about 170 pages long, but I've been reading it since before starting the Harry Potter stuff and it's two weeks overdue. It's not even that hard to read; it's just not verbal crack like Harry Potter. The book is an essay about the significance of the novel. I'm pretty sure Kundera would hate the Harry Potter books- maybe he'd even call them "kitschy." Why do I like reading them? It's fun to get lost in the Harry Potter world, but what then? I come out of reading and watching this stuff feeling like I just drank a lot of mountain dew two hours ago.

Incidentally, Kundera loves Don Quixote (which I appreciate too, but probably not to the same extent since I'm not quiiite as well read or educated or brilliant as he is...). He uses that book as a role model for novels all over the place in The Curtain. I also recently watched a documentary about Terry Gillian's failed attempt to make a movie about Don Quixote in which Johnny Depp plays a guy who gets tossed from the present back into Quixote's time. The documentary is called Lost in La Mancha, and I found it pretty boring. (I think the movie would've been called The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.) I'm trying to wrap my head around this- it was a documentary about the making of a movie based on a novel that I'm reading an essay about. And here I am writing about the whole thing in a blog. The movie would have added some plot components outside of what's actually in the novel. The documentary was trying to draw parallels between the character of Don Quixote and Gillian himself. The original novel inspired someone to rip it off and write a sequel before Cervantes had a chance to. Then when Cervantes did write his sequel, he made fun of the fake sequel. Feels kind of meta.

Harry Potter, on the other hand, doesn't make my head spin. I just wish the movies didn't end with dialogue like:
"You'll write letters, won't you Harry?"
"Every week."

That crap is NOT in the book and why would anyone feel the need to remedy that? Jeez, there's enough nausea out there as it is.