yes, virginia-this is a college town (part 2)

we've mentioned that gainesville is beloved. i've discussed it, my readers have mentioned it (thanks, readers!), others have mentioned it-and often repeat one another-here, here, here and here.*
*the last link is my favorite-for oh so many reasons.

when i wrote the first part of this post series, i was motivated by a realization that this town is seriously lacking in a few areas. depending on whom you ask, it's more than a few areas, but i'll stick with 'a few' for now. for some reason this idea i had really REALLY bugged me, but instead of posting a rant complaining about why i was annoyed, i decided to go under the irritation and think about why i was so bothered. i came to the conclusion that something was very wrong with this town, and the reason why it got under my skin was because i love gville for so many reasons. like a proud parent or an adoring child, i couldn't bear to think of what i loved it not living up to its potential, or perhaps more appropriately, my expectations.

let me warn you-some will find this trivial. some will disagree completely. but it still rankles me, so here it is:
gainesville doesn't have enough kids my age to play with.
gainesville doesn't have a college radio station.
gainesville doesn't have a quality independent music store.
and this one will probably make me a few enemies, but gainesville doesn't have that great of a music scene.

BEFORE you start spewing forth hatred, please let me explain. i LOVE music. i love all kinds of music, and i know that's cliche, but i really do. it's all there in my personal pantheon of musical deities: the crazy atonal experimental stuff, live anything of just about every genre (if performed well or at least with some passion), blues, jazz, classical, punk, ska, alt-rock (not the whiny crap), indie, electronica of all kinds, bluegrass, opera, southern rock, you name it. sure, i have my favorites, but everybody gets a chance. here's my exception: i get bored quickly with musicians who lack the chops to back up the pose: if you're on stage just to get laid, AND you can't play whatever it is you're holding, we're done.

but i'm getting ahead of myself. let's start with my first point:
1) i wish gainesville had more kids my age to play with. once i hit the magical 23, my peers began to dwindle slowly. once i finished grad school, they became virtually nonexistent. i miss people my age...more importantly, i miss people with similar lifestyles to my own, regardless of age. i don't miss living in a town with more senior citizens than grass blades, but still.

2) gainesville doesn't have a college radio station. if you're having a thought to the contrary that contains anything remotely associated with rock 104, please stop reading. there's a seat saved for you at rue bar, or someplace in 'midtown'. if you're thinking wuft, that's fine but it's npr, so it doesn't count right now.
we do have a new and upcoming community radio station, thanks to the civic media center. this is exciting, and meets the criteria set forth by many college radio stations. but true college radio, nope. this is especially shocking when you consider that a) we have a very active local music scene (i'll mention that later) and b) we have a highly acclaimed communications/journalism school.

3) gainesville doesn't have a quality independent music store. please correct me here. please. i'm dying for the latest manchester orchestra ep and there's no place in town where i can go pick it up. the typical refrain i hear in response to this is that college kids won't/don't pay for cds from indie record stores when they can download for free. it might be correct as far as gvl is concerned--most of these stores thrive on that post-college/pre-kids demographic, which gainesville sorely lacks (see #1 above). and no, buying online is not the same.

4) gainesville doesn't have that great of a music scene. our live music scene, while locally-focused, and occasionally talented, is lacking. i don't need to see a bunch of big, overplayed, corporate-label names. i'll settle for some regional ones. i don't have a problem with the local scene at all, it'd just be nice to get some different flavor than the punk/ska/emo/alt-rock-centered peeps we have here. and no offense to the younguns and old dogs, but it'd be nice to have some talent over 21 and under 50 come through town.
i know people who are into the local music scene, and for them it's nirvana. but there's a very proud, sometimes obnoxiously exclusive attitude about it that i don't remember from ten years ago. and instead of protecting local bands, it only weakens the overall quality of gainesville music.
the hardest pill to swallow is that we used to have every name in the business coming through here in addition to amazing local talent--what happened? granted, there is some amazing local talent, and some can put on a helluva show...i'm not trying to hate.
i realize that this is an extremely subjective issue-if all the bands you like are here, we have the best music scene ever. but for the rest of us, i wish whatever issue it is that's keeping every band i like from coming to town (except for robert randolph, thank jebus) would get solved.
you know, celine dion, xtina, 'lil wayne...the greats.
we can do better, gainesville.

goo gone adventures

for anyone who hasn't noticed, i've had black duck tape holding the drivers' side rear window of my jeep together for several months. some f**ktard cut it open instead of just unzipping it, or (this is really a stretch, but go with it) instead of opening my unlocked doors to get inside. as the man at the upholstery place said, "if they were smart, they wouldn't be a criminal" (i beg to differ, being both brilliant and an occasional criminal).

on a suggestion from a co-worker, today i took the boobicon to an upholstery place to be repaired. she's had to endure the indignity of driving around town with a ghetto duck-taped side window for several months now, so it's the least i can do. the guy there was great, and told me that if i cleaned off the tape and glue residue, he'd sew it together for half the price he originally quoted me. BONUS!!! off to home depot i went for Goo Gone (aka citrus-scented petroleum distillate) and some latex gloves.

back at the ranch, i put on my gloves, assemble my equipment, and get to gone-ing some goo. the tape i had used to keep the window together wasn't technically duck tape, it was gorilla tape, which is like duck tape, but stronger in the same proportion as an actual gorilla to an actual duck. and it had been on for most of the summer, so it was right slimy...so slimy that the latex gloves were completely worthless (you can see it stuck to the goo).
they came off, and my hands got sticky.

as i was pulling the tape off (it's not screwing around--there's a reason it kept the window together at 85mph), things got ugly. i knocked my diet coke off the counter and spilled it all over the carpet, stuck the window to the countertop, got glue in my hair, etc.

so i'm pulling tape off, and scrubbing the glue with goo gone and a rag, and pulling more tape, making an unholy mess of things. as i'm pulling the last of the tape off of the bottom of the window, I FIND A DEAD SNAKE stuck IN the glue. a dead snake. in my jeep.
i like snakes, so this wasn't a traumatic experience, more of a "you have got to be kidding me" kind of thing, but still.
i took a close up shot of him. poor thing...i guess my zero fatality driving record has been shattered.

yes, virginia-this is a college town (part 1)

kgb and i have had numerous lengthy discussions about gainesville in the past year. they generally revolve around this general theme: orlando=all that's good, gville=podunk and boring, or my favorite: gainesville is a dirtier, smaller version of orlando. i often take the position of explaining how gainesville is charming and quiet and eclectic and earthy, not podunk or boring. i have to admit, i do miss a few of the comforts of bigger cities, but gainesville has grown on me since i first moved here. i miss all of the friends who have moved away, and i wish that my family and the beach (in that order, but it's close) were a little easier to get to, but i like it here. i hope that it grows on him the way it grew on me, but diff'rent strokes, right? ;)

i was raised in the suburbs, and once upon a time it was easy for me to give up on this town. i thought i had bigger fish to fry. fresh from high school and my first trip to europe, i unpacked the boxes into my freshman year dorm room and babbled about how i couldn't wait to move to atlanta, where promise and glory beckoned to me like a glistening glass of sweet tea on a summer day, or like a shoe sale at saks to a trophy wife*. but life happens, and with the exception of a brief 16-month sabbatical to atlanta and orlando, i've lived here (happily) for 13 years. it's been my home longer than any other city, and even though i moved around at least a dozen times during that period, it still feels like home.

there are lots of things i love about gainesville, but there are only so many times you can listen to people tell you how great this place is, even when you love it. besides, they only ever mention the same ten or twelve things. it's like watching the freshmen return each fall--there might be variations, but it's gonna be the same story...let's see if i can do any better:

why gainesville pretty much rocks:
-it's small enough that you know the guy at the coffee shop, but big enough that your neighbor doesn't tell everyone in town who was at your place last weekend.
-you can ride your bike anywhere and everywhere. and it's fun.
-the oppressive heat and humidity of summer is offset by the fact that the city's population is reduced by half for three glorious, traffic-free, empty-restaurant months. AND you don't have to deal with a bunch of old people from the northeast in the winter.
-you can sit on top of a parking garage, watch the sun set over the butterfly house, and if you time it right, watch either a) a storm come in or b) the moon rise over campus behind you.
-you're only an hour and a half from everything except mountains. if you want mountains, you can bike down 8th ave.
-more places for brunch under $20 than most big cities, and usually with all-you-can-drink mimosas
-watching people act like they live in milan. or new york, or london. they're usually just from south florida or leesburg...it's awesome.
-sandhill cranes (cliche, but once you've heard that sound...)
-almost everything you need is within a half hour drive, even during rush hour.
-rush hour here only lasts about 20 minutes, and it's only on four roads.
-the monkey tree in butler plaza.

that's it for now. what did i miss?

*when you can't pick a simile, use both!

bunnies

let me preface this by saying that i love bunnies.

rabbits, bunnies, whatever. i love the word bunny, and i am a grown woman. i make no apologies for this.

i realize that once you've had a bunny of your own, they lose some of their cute points. this really goes for most things in life-familiarity breeds contempt, right? at any rate, i have never owned a rabbit as a pet, mostly because a) you have to keep them outside, which always seems to be a strange thing to do to a pet (i grew up in the suburbs-don't judge me), b) more often than not, they meet with gruesome and untimely deaths, c) many are ill-tempered and bite (probably because of the aforementioned items), and d)they're much more fun to stroke lovingly and oooo and aaaaah over than they are to care for on a daily basis. in this regard, bunnies are like boats (or kids or power tools)--you should know someone who has one of their own that they don't mind sharing from time to time.

that being said, kim and i were discussing the finer points of felting, which led to a mohair/angora discussion*, and i found a bunny that both horrifies and fascinates me. it will haunt my dreams.
behold:*for any interested parties: angora goats make mohair, but angora comes from angora rabbits. knowledge is power.

i love jack cafferty

i had no idea who this man was until today, and i have no idea what his politics are like, if he leaves his dirty old man underwear around the house, or if he's a pederast, but if i were single, i'd marry him today for this comment alone: "if john mccain wins, this woman will be one 72 year old's heartbeat away from being president of the united states...i'm 65 and have been covering politics...for a long time--that is one of the most pathetic pieces of tape i have ever seen for someone aspiring to one of the highest offices in this country. that's all i have to say."

it gets me every time

it's been a while--i've been travelling (and recovering from travelling), and i'm just not one of those people who can post on location. i admire those who can: "i'm in [fabulous location x] looking at [awesome crap y] and i HAD to post about it!" but i'm lazy and self-indulgent when i travel-i'd rather take the time to peruse unknown bookstores and pretend that i'm independently wealthy. i'll try to share travel stories later. for now, i have a rekindled obsession and i want to share.

funny that travelling and gardens and old friends, three of my all-time favorite things, didn't motivate me to post, but the election did. we went to orlando this past weekend-i went for the trade show, KGB came along because he'd rather lose a limb than miss an opportunity to visit orlando-and we watched the debate on friday night. i'll leave my reaction to it aside for now.
more importantly, it lit a long-dormant fire. don't get me wrong, the upcoming election has been on my mind since W was re-elected in 04. i still don't know how that happened, and it's one of a very few times in my life that something so indirectly connected to my life has elicited such a visceral emotional reaction from me. i cried when kerry lost, i felt sick, was relatively inconsolable for a solid week. i looked up apartment rental prices in london, costa rica, toronto. W's victory upset me more than my divorce did a year later.


i didn't even like kerry that much-i was just so very disappointed in the country. that's what i get for having idealistic tendencies, i guess. non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. consequently, i was over politics. done with worrying about who'd get elected where, over trying to explain to people why it's important, through with checking out c-span to see what was up in the legislature. i let the cynicism get to me. chalk it up to post-traumatic stress syndrome.


W's reign has taught me several valuable lessons; not the least of which is that if you value your way of life, you can't leave things like elections up to chance and the midwest. but until friday, i was done-i made my donation to the obama campaign, got my t-shirt, and planned to vote quietly come november. but the debate friday night, coupled with a few key conversations with some friends, has rekindled the fire. it's election time, and i have named the puppy. regardless of political affiliation, regardless of how deeply you've been hurt by other elections or impeachment hearings (or lack thereof), regardless of your opinions of the 'system', vote. vote. please. fuck the electoral college-your vote counts.


and if you need motivation, or just entertainment:
SNL's parody of Palin with Couric--it's a parody at first, but then they show the real clip, so watch it even if you saw it on snl. it's frightening to see that what you thought was a joke is just a mimicry. she's actually that dumb.
Palin on foreign policy. this pissed me off so much i can't even talk about it. it's beyond insulting.

you have until october 6th to get your license and registration updated. for florida types, you can even do it online and mail it in. make sure your driver license and voter registration match-if they don't, you can update your license online too. it all takes about ten minutes, unless you're illiterate or mentally challenged. in either case, find a friend.

K.I.T.

i know i'm not alone here; stay with me for a second.
so i'm the first one to admit that i'm not good at keeping in touch with people. i don't know why exactly, it's just one of those things. i think about people all the time--friends, family, acquaintances i haven't seen in forever--i mean i really think about them. how they are, what's going on with them, when their birthday is, if they ever bought those shoes, etc. but somehow there's this disconnect between me thinking "i really should call 'x'" and the act of picking up the phone to do so. why? i don't know. and i don't discriminate-it's aunts, grandmas, siblings, friends from high school, friends from college, friends with whom i'm reunited after no contact for a decade, everybody. there are one or two exceptions, but that's about it. and then there's this bizarre guilt- and then it goes from a week to a month to six months. it's awful.

and here's my point: facebook and myspace make it so much worse. because now not only do i think about people and not call them, i can lurk about on their profile pages, leave a comment or two and feel like i've kept in touch, but i haven't. it's creepy actually, when you think about it. am i a social network junkie? eeesh.

classic example: i have a friend from high school (several, come to think of it. this applies to several friends from high school...or college. see?) to whom i was always close. we lost touch in college, then found each other again early this year. one or two emails back and forth, he sends me a link to his blog to catch me up on his life, and we say we should make plans to have dinner with our respective partners and/or friends. fast forward eight months, we still haven't met up or really talked, but i check his blog periodically to a) see what's up, and b) because i find him endlessly entertaining. KGB and i run into his wife at a local music festival this past weekend, but he's nowhere to be seen. of course, i recognize her from his blog and his photos, and that's when i become that person. i introduce myself to his poor unsuspecting (i assume) wife, who was very polite, explain why i recognize her and apologize for what's probably an awkward encounter, but as i did it, i realized that i was in completely new and uber creepy territory. interchange that festival and that friend with any of a dozen other friends and situations, and i'm in the same place again and again. we all have this knowledge of what's going on with each other, but with no firsthand experience to back it up. it's empty. it's isolating. it's just frigging bizarre. it's the classic complaint of the last century--we keep coming up with ways to make our lives easier, to save time, to lose weight, to be happier, to save money, to keep in closer contact, and we end up with exactly the opposite.

so what do we do? what do we do when we have every conceivable means of keeping in touch, but all we do is get further apart?

i'm gonna go get some ice cream. call me.

projects and plans

apparently i'm a blogging fool today. i took the day off from work to--well, to work at home, but also take care of a ton of things that have been left undone and which constantly nag me from the back burner in my head. some of them sound like ghosts, others are more like drill sergeants. but they're there. so i'm trying to knock a few down to quell the onslaught.


first things first. i've been meaning to put pix up of our new place fa-EVAH, so here's the house:
note: american flag courtesy of the landlord. go patriotism. i'm debating whether to slap an obama head on it to advertise, but i don't think that Mr. Lee would ever come over again.
if the financial situation was better, i'd be trying to talk the landlord into selling. but it still rocks, even as a rental. more pics here



other projects include, but are not limited to:
-start blog. check.
-uploading a ton of pix to send to jenny p and for posting to the web. this one has been completed too. woo hoo!
-picking up the lawnmower from the repair place. if you're around gville, Sapp's rocks. don't waste your time someplace corporate. they're so O.G. that they don't have a website, but if you're local you know who i mean.
-mowing the lawn. hopefully i'll get some help from KGB on this one.


for the long term:
-installing the free plants that Mr. Lee brought over a month ago right after we moved in. this involves not only round up (yay!) but also weeding (boo). we'll see if this happens.
-making this (with my own modifications, of course). i have the stuff from ikea for it, just need to decide on a stain color, hardware, and drawer liner. i also have to coordinate with sassy crafter so that she doesn't send me bad crafting mojo for making it without her. i don't expect to finish this today, it's more of a long term thing.
and of course, two landscape designs that have been haunting my existence for a couple of months now--well, one for a couple of months. the other is currently on schedule.

what is that thing that causes people to have unnaturally high expectations of what they can accomplish in one day? ...if i'd stayed in counseling longer, maybe i could've worked that one out.

la prima

like many new bloggers, i've been reluctant to post for the first time.
why? it's been a combination of the pressure of topic selection for what will surely be the first of many epic and meaningful semi-public statements (i almost gagged myself with that one), the decision of what sort of theme to follow, who to post for, whether i'm being overly narcissistic or self-conscious, blah blah blah.
finally, after i grew so sick of my own neuroses that i stopped thinking about it altogether, a familiar voice came through with some advice. i've heard this voice many times; the first time was at the top of a slide on a preschool daycare playground, and it's there almost every time i dive into a pool, when i make most major life decisions, and when i'm trying to decide between ice cream flavors.
"just go!"
so i'm going.