Awesome Weekend

Well, obviously, I had an awesome weekend, which I really needed after a LOUSY week.

Friday was my birthday, and all I wanted was to go to the beach and relax. So, my friends Jon and Christina joined me for a trek to Brighton Beach. The weather was perfect--blue skies, calm ocean, hot enough to go swimming and breezy enough to enjoy lying out. We spent 3 1/2 hours there and I still hated to leave. That is one thing I really miss about Florida, being able to just go to the beach whenever. It's such a part of the lifestyle down there. The neighborhood of Brighton Beach was fun, too. Quirky and quaint.

Friday night I had a little get together with friends for drinks at Perdition, in Hell's Kitchen (which I will always call Hell's Kitchen, I don't care who calls it Clinton). A great group of people showed up, I got gifts, I got a cupcake, I drank three martinis. It was a lot of fun, and hopefully everyone that came enjoyed themselves, too.

I was a little concerned this year about turning twenty-nine, but I have been surprisingly okay with it, thankfully. It helped that I had a really fun day and night, probably. I'm trembling thinking about next year, though!

Saturday was the Sonic Youth show. I've been a fan of theirs for a long time, so when I found out they would be playing their classic Daydream Nation album in its entirety, I bought two tickets immediately. My friend Jim joined me, and he is a HUGE Sonic Youth fan so I was really glad that he went. It was at McCarren Park Pool in Brooklyn, where I had never been before. It's basically a huge, empty old pool, crumbling and rusting all around you. Pretty cool if you like that kind of thing, which I do. Very Williamsburg. While we were watching the opening act (The Slits), Sonic Youth's drummer came out and stood right in front of us! Neither of us could work up the nerve to say anything, although I did give him a little smile/eyebrow raise when he turned around and made eye contact with us! The show was amazing, they sounded just as great as the album, had a little fun onstage, thanked the audience really pleasantly, AND did two encores with their newer material! We left during the second encore to try and beat the rush, and went to the Creek and the Cave to meet up with Drew and Flynn. Had a couple of drinks and some conversation, and I was ready to head home.

One day soon I'll talk about why my week leading up to this was so miserable. But, I hope it ended up being for the best. For now, I'm still enjoying the glow from the last two days. And tonight, the J.K. Rowling interview on Dateline, the Scott Baio reality show, and Rock of Love with Bret Michaels! I love tv.

Enneagram

I stole this from Elita's MySpace blog. Here are my results:

4
"The Romantic"
"I am unique"
Romantics have sensitive feelings and are warm and perceptive.
How to Get Along with Me
Give me plenty of compliments. They mean a lot to me.
Be a supportive friend or partner. Help me to learn to love and value myself.
Respect me for my special gifts of intuition and vision.
Though I don't always want to be cheered up when I'm feeling melancholy, I sometimes like to have someone lighten me up a little.
Don't tell me I'm too sensitive or that I'm overreacting!

What I Like About Being a FOUR
my ability to find meaning in life and to experience feeling at a deep level
my ability to establish warm connections with people
admiring what is noble, truthful, and beautiful in life
my creativity, intuition, and sense of humor
being unique and being seen as unique by others
having aesthetic sensibilities
being able to easily pick up the feelings of people around me

What's Hard About Being a FOUR
experiencing dark moods of emptiness and despair
feelings of self-hatred and shame; believing I don't deserve to be loved
feeling guilty when I disappoint people
feeling hurt or attacked when someone misundertands me
expecting too much from myself and life
fearing being abandoned
obsessing over resentments
longing for what I don't have

FOURs as Children Often
have active imaginations: play creatively alone or organize playmates in original games
are very sensitive
feel that they don't fit in
believe they are missing something that other people have
attach themselves to idealized teachers, heroes, artists, etc.
become antiauthoritarian or rebellious when criticized or not understood
feel lonely or abandoned (perhaps as a result of a death or their parents' divorce)

FOURs as Parents
help their children become who they really are
support their children's creativity and originality
are good at helping their children get in touch with their feelings
are sometimes overly critical or overly protective
are usually very good with children if not too self-absorbed

I think this is accurate in a lot of ways, especially some of the stuff under "What Is Hard ABout Being a 4" and "Fours As Children".

Here is a link if you want to take the quick test!
http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=6711512663497470889

The Big Day

Today is the release of the final Harry Potter book. Well, tonight at midnight, anyway. I can't believe that within 24 hours I will probably know the ending to this series that I have been following for about 5 years! It's exciting but I feel quite sad as well. Good thing I bought some kleenex last week, I'm sure it'll come in handy.

I read the review in the New York Times yesterday and was disappointed that they sort of gave away the meaning of the title, but I guess that's what I get for reading a review! Thankfully after tomorrow I will be able to go about my business on the internet without worrying about encountering spoilers.

I really hope that Harry, Hermione and Ron make it out alive. That is all.

Bette Davis Eyes

I think my all-time favorite 80s song lyric is from this number.

"ROLL YA LIKE YOU WERE DICE!!!"

The delivery really sells it.

Beautiful Bette in "Of Human Bondage"

World Series of Pop Culture

I'd really like to get a team together and try out for this next year! If anyone bothers to read this and would like to join forces, get in touch with me.

This year, I'm rooting for Team Wocka Wocka. All the teams are great, but I really like them for some reason. They seem to have a reasonable but not crazy amount of knowledge, so I guess they are relatable to me. Twisted Misters are fun, too!

Oh, and as far as Three Men and a Little Lazy go--how do you not know the Pacific Princess???

July

July, from Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (I took this image from Wikipedia. Hey, it's in the public domain!)

I have always been really happy to have been born in July. My birthdate itself is kind of cool--7/27, like an airplane. In numerology 7 is usually regarded as a mysterious, highly spiritual number, relating to such concepts as the seven days of Creation, the seven archangels of the Revelation, the number of magnetic power points radiating through the Earth (see Nikola Tesla's magnetic fields), and is just generally representative of God's force. Nine (27) is no slouch, either. Mathematically, all of its products come back to it, anything you add to it will also come back upon itself, and it's three of three (3 being a powerful number in its own right). In alchemy it is referred to as the Red Dragon. The compound number 27 (3 of 9) is called The Sceptre, and is highly beneficent, a number of karmic reward in which intellect, imagination, and creativity are highlighted.* That must be why I'm always so freaking happy. ;-) Anyway, I enjoy that kind of thing so it's a reason for me to love the month.

July was also always the only month in summer that we had completely off, school usually ending in early-mid June and picking up again in late August. When I think of the happiest times in my life thus far, they usually involve lazy, sunny days spent at various pools and beaches, or out on the front porches of Georgia in early evening, catching fireflies with my cousins, any sort of responsibilty the furthest thing from my mind, flora and fauna out in full force and all smells intensified! There's just something about summer that I don't think I'll ever get over. I'm almost superstitious about it, really. If I have a bad or boring summer, then I'm not ready for fall to begin, and certainly not psychically ready for the misery of winter.

There are also heavy political connotations to the month. The name itself comes from Julius Caesar. In France they have Bastille Day. The U.S. and several South American nations celebrate Independence Day. FIREworks. It's quite a magnificent month. (I won't even get started on the whole sun god, king as god, worship deal. I'll save that for a discussion on Leos!) I've always been intrigued by the idea of the heat and intensity of July finally causing angry people to just go ahead and freaking revolt.

At any rate, July is usually a happy time for me, and this year it has been especially fun, with all the Harry Potter (who has a [fictional] birthdate of July 31) mania. The seventh book being released in the seventh month of the year 2007. I feel connected to it in a lot of ways. There is even a powerful spell in the books called a PATRONus charm that a wizard uses to protect him or herself from dark forces. Let's face it, it's all about me.

I just hope that my birthday is a nice day with good beach weather. I was trying to plan a trip to Point Pleasant, but it was just too expensive. So, now it looks like either Jones Beach or Brighton Beach for the day. And the following night I get to see Sonic Youth perform the entire Daydream Nation album at McCarren Park Pool!! Talk about exciting...

Also, it's National Ice Cream Month. Need I say more?

*A lot of this info. is culled from Linda Goodman's Star Signs. She's THE authority on all matters astrological.

Welcome

This is my blog. If you want to know what's going on in my head or my life or just have something to make fun of me about, this is probably a good place to go. I'll try to only post interesting stuff, but I make no guarantees.

Excitement for this month: July 4th, Harry Potter fifth movie, Harry Potter seventh (and final!) book, my birthday (July 27).