traditions.

I’ve been talking with friends a lot lately about their holiday traditions (or lack there of), and thinking back to some of mine. My favorite so far, is one of my own that I don’t do with the rest of my family. It’s watching the white glow of the waves as they crash against the shore on the drive home from Santa Barbara. And for at least this year it has continued. We’re almost back to Ventura now, but it’s been really beautiful. Until next year…

seriously?

As i sit inside my house on a lovely rainy day watching Anthony Bourdain No Reservations I am accosted by a random/ridiculous commercial with Harrison Ford about how when a portion of the rain forest is ripped out, wherever it may be, we feel it here. Not a bad thing to learn about, you know, conserving the rain forests and the effects that it has on our world. I can get behind that. What I can't (and won't, and frankly would rather not have seen anyway) is what Mr. Ford does while discussing the effects of chopping down the rain forests. He gets a swatch of his chest hair waxed. Yep. Waxed. It's not even his whole chest. Just the portion right along his breastbone. What does that have to do with cutting down rain forests? I mean really? And if it does have anything to do with cutting down rain forests, then why did I have to witness it? When he connects with the rain forest that way he should really do it in private, without cameras. If you care to view this silly silly commercial about a serious topic pleas feel free. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r87wJ1QmyYw.

Thankfully that was all redeemed during the next segment of No Reservations when Anthony gets tasered by the LAPD SWAT team, voluntarily of course. Good times.

december. thus far.

December doesn't really feel like December this year. I'm not really sure why, but I've been having trouble getting it into my head that it's December and that Christmas is quickly approaching. Christmas is next Thursday, and in no way does it feel like it should be here yet, at all. Some of that I'm going to attribute to how the stores have been playing Christmas music for the last month. I've been phased into it for so long that it's like it should already have been here, or that it should never come. Not that it shouldn't come or that it won't come, but you get the idea. I also have done no Christmas shopping. I don't even know who I'm going to shop for. Family obviously. But what to get them. I think I know what I'm going to get for one of my grandmothers, but so far that's it. Some of my friends don't even want to exchange gifts this year, but spend time together instead. I don't mind that at all, and in fact this year makes my life a bit easier. Although, I really do like to give gifts to people. I haven't done it much lately, but I think that some of it has to do with the fact that I haven't been out much looking at stuff recently. And that's okay too.

I've decided that my band of the winter is Elbow. I recently got their new album Seldom Seen Kid, and the more I listen to it the more I love it. I bought it on an impulse on iTunes and am stoked that I did. It's also nice to have a new seasonal band. My favorite band of summer and fall was Kaiser Chiefs. And I still love them, but there's only so many times you can listen to three albums without longing for something different. They could have burned out after summer but they released their third album in October and that in conjunction with their concert that I attended in LA November 11th propelled them to band of fall too.

Speaking of that Kaiser Chiefs concert in LA... It was pretty much the greatest concert that I've ever been to, and not only because of the show that they put on. Let me go back a bit. When I found out that they were going to play LA I got my tickets right away. I was so excited. As the show approached I got an email newsletter from the band that had a link to win tickets to the LA show. So although I already had tickets I thought that I would randomly enter, it's not like I would win anyway. Well, as it turns out I won two more tickets to the show. I was floored. I found out the Friday before the show while I was up in Oregon. My mom called and said that there was a message on the answering machine from someone in New York saying that I had won and they needed my address to send me the tickets (as it turns out I had an email to the same effect). So I sent him my address and received the tickets the day before the show. So Julianne (who was out for a visit from MN), Sasha and I went down to the Music Box in LA for the show, and we had a really good time. We ate dinner at this little pub next door, walked right into the show, and stood within 30 feet of the stage. I was stoked. The band was wonderful (even without Peanut who had his appendix out in Brazil), but the crowd was a bit lame. (That's LA for you.) Fast forward a few days after the show I got this email from UPS saying that I had a package shipping. I hadn't ordered anything that would be coming from them but noticed some code that had kaisers in it, and I went back to find that original email about the contest. It turns out that with the contest you not only got the tickets but other stuff too. I happened to be getting a Lomography LC-A+ camera. I was super surprised, and stoked. I had been stoked enough on the tickets but then to get something else I was floored. The camera came and it's super cool and I've taken a few pictures on it but need to finish the roll still. About a week after I got the camera another small package came from NY and it had a copy of the new cd, and a gift card to insound (one of the sponsors of the give away). I couldn't believe it. I got so much, it was amazing. I could have cared less about the stuff after the tickets but I'm stoked that I got it.

That was a really long story. Sorry. I'll try to update more frequently. No promises though. I get the urge to update more than I actually do it, and then it all builds up and it's hard to know what to mention when so much has happened. That was only a small small fraction of what I could go on about from the last month and a half. And most of it is from the last two weeks. Ah well... such is life.