Since U Been Gone......

So, since the LAST time I blogged......I've seen Gomez two more times.

Aaaaand that's about it.

I saw them last summer in Kansas City and Des Moines. I found out about the Des Moines show the DAY I got back from the Gomez trip described in my last post. I don't know, honestly, if I would have gone all the way to Louisville if I had known in advance that they would be back in July within a few hours of me. HOWEVER, I enjoyed my time with my college friends and meeting Ryn in person so it was definitely worth the vacation (and loss of pay one day...long story, not interesting).

So, Gomez came through the Midwest starting in Oklahoma on a Sunday, Kansas City on Monday, Des Moines on Tuesday. I was able to get the Tuesday off without any problem but couldn't initially get the Monday off so I had thought I wouldn't see them more than once, but fate smiled on me and I got the day off.

I met up with some old and new board people at the shows. I spent half the show in KC to the side of the stage talking with two ladies from Omaha about how awesome Gomez is. In Des Moines, I drank a lot and spent the last half of the show right up front dancing like a moron. I'm not ashamed, I just am sure that the band thought I was a complete idiot. I console myself with the fact that this was not the first time nor will it be the last time they have a moron dancing to their music.

After the show in Des Moines, I was slap-happy drunk and had a great time. I was hit on in a bar (for the first time in my LIFE), but was too drunk to notice. Then, I spent a good 15 minutes talking to Ian by the bus. He was very nice and friendly and it totally changed my opinion of him. In Chicago, I thought he had been really rude to me. In Des Moines, he was really nice and talkative. After Ian was forced to get on the bus (the rest of the band were already on the bus and had been waiting a good 30 minutes for him), I was hit on AGAIN by a different guy. I was so shocked by Ian's total 180 in his attitude towards me, and I was still pretty drunk, so I didn't notice.

Since that last Gomez trip, I've just been doing my thing. Nothing of super significance has happened to me. At work I'm now required to sell to customers. Before I was a pure collector. I have a (so far) extremely small quota, but it's still extra pressure I just really didn't want to deal with. I'm also dealing with people who are, for the most part, struggling financially. Why must I convince them to order MORE things? It's just annoying.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, I went to see Joseph Arthur at the Bryant Lake Bowl (yes a bowling alley, but it was awesome) with a fellow Gomez fan who lives up here. We had a good time and I actually got to chat with Joseph Arthur (why am I incapable of calling him Joseph or Joe? I almost feel the urge to put "Mr." in front of his name) after both the first and second show. I requested the song "Rages of Babylon" for the second show when we bumped into him at an ice cream parlor up the block from the bowling alley between the shows. He told me he didn't remember that one so he couldn't play it and kind of felt bad that he couldn't play it. It's my absolute favorite song of his. I can put it on repeat and listen to it for hours and hours. After the second show, he hugged me and Sarah (the girl I attended the show with) and was REALLY nice, promising to remember the song for the next time he plays here. I'm not holding my breath, I doubt he'd remember me anyway, but a girl can always hope, right?

In two days I leave again for another Gomez trip. I swear I hardly leave the house except for Gomez! I'm Amtraking it to Chicago Thursday morning, seeing Gomez at the Vic again, then driving to Madison, Wisconsin Friday to see them there and back home to the Twin Cities on Saturday to see them here. This will make my total Gomez show attendance number to 9 when it's all said and done.

I have the week off work so I can get my house in order because I'm going to have a houseguest Saturday night. I could have worked a few days this week, I could have just shoved my crap into my closets and just did a good vacuum job, but I really needed to get rid of a lot of crap. I have filled my trash can for the first time in WEEKS this week (being a single person, I don't generate a lot of trash, usually it's one kitchen-sized trash bag).

Worse, though, is my recycling. My recycling is picked up at the front of my house on the boulevard. The boulevard is the low spot on my property which means from the first major snowfall until it stops getting below freezing overnight (April?), the sidewalk area out to the street is PURE ICE. There is no getting around it. As the snow melts (and it melts whenever the sun is out, regardless of the air temperature), the water pools there and freezes when the sun goes down. I hate it. So, since the prospect of traversing the boulevard to put out my recycling makes my stomach turn into knots (falling is something I do WAY too much), I haven't put out my recycling since mid-November. I haven't thrown the recyclables out in the regular trash. The newspaper and the plastic bottles have just been....accumulating. I have a pantry off my kitchen that was just STUFFED with bags FULL of bottles to be recycled. My living and dining room had paper bags full of newspaper. If I had let it go on anymore, you might have next seen me on that show about people who hoard things. I'm not really hoarding it, I just can't put it in the regular trash and I don't want to fall on my ass! I swear! It's been warmer the past few days and so I've been working on the ice. It's not gone, of course, because we still have a ton of snow and it's melting, but I'm making some progress (the ice was about 4 inches thick, I swear). So, tomorrow, I'll be putting out about 12 bags of newspaper and plastic bottles and I'll be FREE FREE FREE! (in keeping with the theme of the title - I can breathe for the first time!)

I kind of wish I had worked at least Monday and Tuesday of this week because I know I'm going to be at a disadvantage when I get back to work. The requirements for my job are increasing month to month and working only 3/4 of the month means I have to work THAT much harder to keep up. On the other hand, I took a nap this afternoon, I get to get up WHENEVER tomorrow and I'll come home to a very clean house on Saturday.

So, win-win.

I'm going to try to blog more often. I miss it.