Off work for the weekend, listening to some great music with the window open and the little bumble bees flying in and out. Speaking of great music, I'm really excited two songs off of records I got this week. The first is At Break Of Day, the fifth track on the new Bonnie 'Prince' Billy album. It's got this really nice flowing bassline to it that gets me everytime, and it's a sweet happy song, unlike most of his brilliant I See a Darkness album. The second is Goodbye, off the newest Silver Scooter album. Great pop stuff from Texas with incredible vocal fluidity, the way he says the lyrics make the song great. I was trying to imagine it a different way, and it just wouldn't work right. Uh-huh.

So I got off work at 3:00 today 'cause I had to go back (again, for the 4th time) to the Occupational Health Center to get my arm looked at again. Remember how I jammed the boxcutter into my arm a week ago? Well, now my arm is all infected, and getting worse hourly. I know this is gross, and it's probably sharing too much, but nothing this dangerously interesting happens to me very often. I was waiting in the little exam room, falling asleep on those little paper covered examination tables when the nurse practioner walked back in the room. "Well, we're going to have to give you an antibiotic shot of Cefazolin." I was OK with this, I mean, a shot in the arm isn' the worst thing I've felt. I have tattoos, so it's just like that right? "The shot will be in your bottom, so drop your pants and lie on the table." Uh, what? Ok, now I was scared, I hate to admit it, but I was. I lied there, gripping my little bracelets tightly since there was nothing else to hold on to. "Ok, here we go." Pop, needle goes in. I think to myself "Hey, that wasn't bad at all, I don't know why I was so...AH! OUCH! HELL!" That was the part where she actually injected the meds, and I screamed and writhed around in pain. Intramuscular injections apparently, aren't my cup of tea. So I limped around the office for a bit, trying to "move the medicine around" or something, pouting and feeling really sorry for myself. So, now I have this big nasty infection on my arm which has made a huge red oval, as well as a band-aid smack dab on my ass. The day gets better now, right?

Oh boy, I'm finally glad I got a copy of this album. God it sounds good.

So I'm all full of Thai red curry and bamboo shoots, happy, loving life, not minding the warm weather. Things feel good today. Yesterday was busy, almost too busy. I met the fog near the coast, coming all of a sudden like there was a clear barrier between it and the rest of the state. It must have been 80 something degrees inland, but the coast was cold, windy, and dark. I drove frantically trying to get back to the office by 5:00, singing aloud on the interstate much to the joys of passing motorists, I'm sure.

Boss left the office about an hour ago, and it's become a complete slack-fest in here. The place is a mess and everyone is annoyed when they're actually forced to, *gasp*, work. I usually don't associate with the other employees outside of working hours, but I've had an offer today for lunch at the best Thai food place around here, Cha-am. So, after a morning of fasting and grumbling about how hungry I am, it's time to feed.

Today took forever to complete, all I can say is that I'm glad it's over. I was in the *worst* mood today at work, I finally begged for the necessary $1.10 to get an afternoon cup of coffee, which improved my mood exponentially.

After work I went record shopping for the first time in ages. New things abound, so I'll have something good to listen to while I ride all around Sonoma County tomorrow for work. We walked to the crepe store across the street and got some sweet crepes to go. My tummy is now happy, what with the butter & sugar crepe and Red Stripe inside it.

There's a new Depeche Mode album coming out. I find that very strange for some reason, like there's a new Doors record coming out or something.

Did the riduculousness of the Oscars make anyone else shiver? It was frightening, pointless, and I was amazed at how much Bob Dylan looked like Vincent Price. I'm sure I'm not the only one who made that comparison. I also think that the amount of Mango-Apricot cider I ingested that night numbed me so that I was able to watch the entire program.

Yesterday was made for relaxing, so we sat around and watched Bastard Out of Carolina. I found the story to be good, but the movie was unneccesarily violent and graphic, as well as poorly acted. There was a scene with Christina Ricci that was probably the most pointless scene in movie history. It seemed like a blatant excuse to stick her somewhere in the movie. Weird.

Tonight we're going to a Gauntlet party. Some friends purchased the full stand up version of the classic video game, and tonight we're attempting to get to level 150. Good (albeit geeky), fun.

To celebrate the release of my band's new E.P., I give you this week's MP3 of the week. Everything That's Wrong is probably my favorite song of ours, I even liked it before I joined the band, so nobody can point fingers at personal biases. If you like what you hear, either let me know so I can send you a copy, or look for me on Napster (streetsandavenues). Voila, it's yours.

Hurried back from Santa Rosa this morning fueled on cheap coffee and really good freshly baked bread from the bakery down the street. We always buy a couple loaves when we're up there and then snack on free buttered slices. Got back, ran inside for a second, and then hopped back in the car to go hit some batting practice over at Glen Park. The field was a bit muddy from the rain, but we did rather well anyway, *and* I hit a home run way over everyone's heads. Our resident coach is heading out on tour with Sweep The Leg Johnny on Wednesday, so I get a month off from playing baseball.

So, Miss Rodeo America has named her new car Ruby Tuesday, since the only tape we have in there is a Stones tape, and all the Swedish names we could think of sounded horribly unsuited for it. She drove it around a parking lot for awhile, and then bravely cruised it through 5 surrounding suburbs and into the city of Oakland as the sun started to set behind the overpasses. I'm so very proud of her for braving the roads around here in order to learn how to drive. It's tougher than it looks, you know.