23 Sep
And this is why we (temporarily, we hope) no longer exist in the world of Grassblades.
Our souls have been sucked!
14 Mar
We just got back to our respective cities after spending two days in Auckland. Why? TO SEE THE FREAKING PIXIES LIVE IN CONCERT. Hands down the best concert ever.
At most concerts, you get squashed and pushed from all sides, as everyone is trying to enjoy the music. This concert was different. It was full. It had been entirely booked out for MONTHS. However, everybody had space around them to dance. We weren’t packed in like sardines. NOBODY HAD SPACIAL ISSUES. I’ve never had that at a concert.
Everybody in our little area danced their hearts out, and sung along with all the songs. It didn’t matter that we were about 10-15 years younger than everybody there. We were all freaking united for this one show.
AND WHAT A SHOW IT WAS! Pixies are amazing. After all these years they still have it. My voice is still fucked up from singing and screaming and wooing. EVERYBODY picked up on what song they were going to play just from the first few bars, and off that recognition was SO much excitement and energy. EVERY SINGLE SONG OFF DOOLITTLE!
And they played TWO ENCORES. TWO. TWO!!!!!!!!! First encore included a slowed down version of Wave of Mutilation. For the second encore they turned the lights back on, and played some songs off their other albums, ending in Gigantic.
To remember the show by, the lovely people at Abbey Road Live, recorded the entire thing, and put them onto CDs for audience members to purchase. I’m listening to it as I write this, and I would be lying if said I didn’t get goosebumps from listening to it.
22 Feb
I finally got around to buying Bossanova by Pixies. I wasn’t too sure how it could ever compare to Surfer Rosa and Doolittle. I’m glad I gave it a chance. I’ve listened to it twice through, and I am 98% sure it will grow on anyone who listens to it more than once.
I had read so many things about Velouria being amazing, so I was kind of figuring it would be stupidly overrated. It’s not. It is freaking great. The other songs are awesome too, but Velouria is definitely the one that has stood out the most over my two listens.
As a whole though, it is THE most fitting album to listen to with headphones, while lying on your bed and looking through a liquid filled kaleidoscope. I just nicknamed that activity Kaleidoscope Gazing. It fits ridiculously.
17 Feb
I had the most infuriating customer today.
It was nearing closing time, and I’m helping out a woman down in our beading section, when a different woman interrupts, and demands that I help her. I apologize to the first customer, and ask this other lady what she’s after.
She shows me a necklace, that she wants to replace the thread and clasps on.
After 25 minutes or so with this customer, I have achieved the following;
Not an easy customer, but something we get on a regular basis so I’m pretty used to it. The worst thing was when she grabbed an $8 spool of beading thread off the shelf.
“Will this do what I want it to do?”
“Yes, Ma’am, that will be perfect. It’s pretty strong, too.”
“How strong?”
“Well, we’ve never ever had a customer return it.”
She finds the end of the thread and unrolls it a little bit, before sticking it in her mouth and biting it, and pulling it really hard so it snaps; leaving the roll about half a metre short.
I stare at her, slightly shocked. She laughs at me, and then grabs a $4 roll of gold wire.
“I want this instead, but in silver.”
“Uh… well the silver is right next to it but you’ll have to-”
“Okay good.”
She grabs the roll of silver wire, while I am still completely flabbergasted.
“I want thinner silver,” she says as she puts the gold wire back on a hook that has stick on gems on it.
I grab the gold wire, and put it on the correct hook, and point out the thinner silver. She grabs that, and sticks the thicker silver on the same hook as the gems.
Again, I grab the wire, and put it on the correct hook.
That’s when she puts the original $8 spool of bead thread on the gem hook, by which stage my shock has worn off, and I interject.
“No, Ma’am, you’ll have to buy that thread.”
“I told you, I want this wire.”
“Well you’re welcome to buy the wire, but you still need to buy the thread.”
“No, I do not. I only want the wire.”
“We cannot sell that thread to a customer. You put it in your mouth, and broke it.”
“It did not break off.”
“I was standing right here the whole time.”
“Did you see anything break off and float to the ground?”
“No, but I clearly saw you pull it so hard, while it was in your mouth, and it broke.”
“So it’s not very strong then, is it.”
“It’s BEADING thread. It’s used for necklaces and bracelets. Most people don’t stick the thread in their mouths, between their teeth, and pull it really hard for fun.”
“I’m not buying it.”
“You have to. We can’t resell it, and you damaged it.”
She argued with me for another 10 minutes, before she dumped everything on the counter. One of my workmates served her for me, cause she could tell I was frustrated, but I wasn’t gonna cave. She was going to freaking pay for that thread.
My workmate scanned everything in for her, and then the lady decided that it was all too expensive, and put EVERYTHING that I had helped her find to the side, and said she didn’t want it, including the bead thread. THE NERVE. She had thought I wasn’t watching, but I jumped in and told her that she -had- to pay for the thread. She could leave everything else if she wanted, but she had to get the thread.
She started muttering under her breath after that, but paid nevertheless. My workmate wrote on the till docket that there were no refunds or exchanges for the thread. The lady stalked off. I’ll probably never see her again, but it’s entirely possible that she’ll place a complaint about me with our head office.
WHAT THE FUCK EVER. SHOULDN’T STICK THINGS IN YOUR MOUTH THAT DON’T BELONG TO YOU.
Oh. Ew. Husband.
14 Feb
It would be really awesomely mean to put someone’s Sensodyne toothpaste into the freezer while they sleep, and then put it back by the sink before they wake up to brush.
12 Feb
After 20 minutes or so of climbing in and out of my bedroom window with a chair and my guitar, I have come to the conclusion that I simply cannot succeed in having a secret outdoor jam without traipsing out the front door.
7 Feb
I had to see my ex’s parents today, for the first time since we broke up about two years ago. They’re lovely people, but I wasn’t too sure how they were going to take my presence after everything that’s happened. It was inevitably going to be slightly awkward.
We pulled up, and as I was hopping out of the car, I felt my bra come undone. It does this sometimes, if I rub my back against something too hard. I couldn’t reach behind and do it back up because, HOLY-CRAP-PEOPLE-WERE-RIGHT-THERE-AND-IF-I-WAS-FIDDLING-WITH-MY-BRA-THEN-OH-DEAR-GOD-WHAT-WOULD-THEY-THINK.
We socialized and made small-talk with my bra being undone, and literally just hanging off my shoulders under my top. They didn’t appear to dislike me, but I can’t help but wonder if they noticed the bra-failure. I’m pretty sure I would notice someone else’s bra-failure.
Time to invest in some new bras, methinks. Ones that come with an extra locking mechanism for those critical situations where your bra really needs to stay on. Somebody should market this, damn it.
3 Feb
Life is hectic. Things change so often and it’s hard to keep track of where it all goes.
We’re already into the second month of a new year. How is there even time to process everything that’s happened since last year when new things keep happening that also are going to need processing at somepoint! It feels like there’s a build up of things that need to be acknowledged and accepted so that you can move onto the next thing. & I can’t even begin to think how that would happen.
I’m sure some time ago one of us said something about lying on the floor.
Lying on the floor gives a different perspective, everything’s on a different angle and sometimes everything’s just a tiny bit clearer and easier to handle for that tiny difference.
The begining of this year so far is well in need of some floor time.
7 Jan
We have visitors in our kitchen. They invited themselves. They ate the leftover dinner that I was planning to take for my lunch at work tomorrow. They are eating my living space.
They’re a married couple, with a bunch of kids, a messy unhygienic house, and woe. Lots of woe.
They keep making lame jokes, that are so tragically unfunny.
The lady-figure came into my room while I was sitting here browsing web-comics. She starts talking to me, even though I am being deliberately unsociable. I stopped what I was doing, but kept the MacBook in my lap. I didn’t want to be rude, but I didn’t want to be encouraging either.
So she starts talking incessantly about her daughter, and her femininity, social life, and education: things that I do not, and will not EVER give a flying fuck about. She’s one of those people who needs active responses, or otherwise she just keeps saying your name until you say something of relevance.
She is like an over-excited parrot, except I’m the one stuck in the cage, listening to her squawk, unable to fly the fuck away.
30 Dec
Sitting in a towel at Van’s computer. This is how the year should both end and begin.
Clothing optional, of course.
