So I Went to Italy…

It was a honeymoon of sorts as it was where the Mister and I had wanted to go in June, but that was peak season and so expensive. I did a little research and learned that everything we wanted to do would be half the price in October. So we went to Mexico then (Also off-season. I guess that’s our style.) and made plans to do the big trip in the fall.

It was the perfect idea. Not only is everything more affordable, but the weather is perfect. It was 75 degrees and sunny every day. It only rained the day we arrived and the day we left. There were still a lot of tourists in the bigger cities but it wasn’t overwhelming. We were still able to do everything we wanted to do. And we brought some friends with us. Continue reading →

October 28, 2008
Categories: Dear Diary . Tags: . Author: Baxter . Comments: 2 Comments

“You Never Write…”

I know, I know. But it’s because I’ve been in Italy for the last 2 weeks. As one would expect, it was amazing. More to come on that. And lots of pictures too.

October 20, 2008
Categories: Dear Diary . Tags: . Author: Baxter . Comments: 3 Comments

Rockin’ Birthday Eve

My second annual 29th birthday coincided with my new life as a freelancer. The good news about my freelancing career is that so far I have had plenty of work. The bad news is that it’s a little too much work. I have been very busy and very tired and haven’t really had time to blog. So that’s why I’m just getting around to writing about my birthday party. Which was AWESOME.

Some friends, my Mister and I had been noodling around in the basement for a couple of months with instruments making something resembling a band. We played a lot of Weezer because it turns out it’s not that hard. Emily was pretty good with the rapping so we decided to put a couple of verses of “Shoop” in the middle of “Tired of Sex”. That worked out so well that I wrote some raps of my own and we put them into the middle of “Undone” and “Surf Wax America” too. The “Surf Wax” rap is based on the Patrick Swayze character in “Point Break”. We discovered that we weren’t terrible. We gave ourselves a name: The MC Superman Skivvies. And eventually, we got the bug to play in front of people. We happen to know a lot of very talented people who would be fun to share a stage with. Hence: The First Periodic Baxtle of the Bands was planned and scheduled to take place on my birthday. We somehow managed to cram 6 bands and 60-some people into our living room.

The other bands who played were:
Supercolliding Superconductor (involving the awesome Yuna on keyboard and vocals and Arsenio on lead vocals and megaphone)
3X Wogato (another cover band playing Clash, Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello and Roy Orbison)
Floppy Donkey Dick (a brother and sister rock duo)
Tough Guy Mosh (a duo of epic proportions)
Lady Drama (the incredibly talented and professional rock quartet)

The voting was done democracy-style via a ballot box. It was a realistic democracy too on account of the illegal ballot stuffing (not in our favor, by the way) and the fact that not very many people remembered to vote.

All the bands were really phenomenal so there was pretty stiff competition. Lady Drama plays a lot of gigs and all their songs are original. 3X Wogato brings years of experience to the table. But the MC Superman Skivvies won anyway. I like to think it had very little to do with the home court advantage. We recorded the whole show and I’ve uploaded our set onto our new MySpace page. You can hear people singing along and cheering during our set. I think mostly they were genuinely surprised that we were any good. We just need to keep the expectations low and we will do fine as a band. We don’t have any designs for world domination but we would like to play a couple more gigs.

I didn’t drink much before we played. Just enough to ease the nerves. But after we were done, how the bevvies flowed. By the time all the bands were done and the cake was cut, I was appropriately birthday drunk. So much so that I didn’t even recall the occurrence of the late-night jam session, much less taking part in it myself. Thank god for photographs. Now I remember the whole night like I was there. Which I was. I’m fairly certain.

Check out our set on our MySpace page and maybe become our friend! We will play another show soon! And we will have more songs ready by then too!

Also, check out the pictorial evidence of the mayhem here and here.

September 21, 2008
Categories: Dear Diary, Picture Pages, The Soundtrack . Tags: , . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

You Deserve to be Miserable

I really hate ALL of the FreeCreditReport.com commercials, but the one that especially bugs me is the “Dream Girl” one in which the guy sings that if only he’d checked his wife’s credit he’d “be a happy bachelor with a dog and a yard”.

So…the only reason she was your dream girl was because you thought she could buy you a house? Why don’t you get a real job so that YOU can buy the house instead of sitting around in the basement playing your shitty songs while she does the laundry. Asshole.

September 16, 2008
Categories: Dear Diary, This is the End, YooToob . . Author: Baxter . Comments: 3 Comments

The New Twenties Indeed

I didn’t feel as different after getting married as I do after a day of being 30. I guess one difference is that I was actually looking forward to the former. Everyone (in their thirties) says I’m gonna love my thirties, but it sure has been more difficult to look in the mirror. Hopefully it’s more due to the fact that I’m settling into new work and a new schedule than that I am now no longer in the youth market.

Now I’m gonna go unwind the adult way: by watching the new episode of 90210.

September 10, 2008
Categories: Dear Diary . . Author: Baxter . Comments: 10 Comments

To the Sisters Go the Spoils

This past Saturday was the 6th Annual Dodecathelon, the 12 event competition created by my husband to be held on his birthday every year. This is the 4th one that I have attended. The last two years, I have come in 3rd place. There was a little strategy involved but I mostly attribute my placement victory to little more than being there all day and not getting too drunk to move. I have never expected to win because my mister’s male friends are generally very competitive and a couple of them have long coveted the Dodeca trophy. (Yes, there really is a trophy).

The events of the Dodeca this year were:

  • The Cook Off (Sweet and Savory Categories)

    • Lawn “Sports”

  • Croquet
  • Bocce Ball
  • Horseshoes
  • Egg Toss

    • Drinking Games

  • Tang (drinking relay race)
  • Keg Stand (Separate gender categories)
  • Pickle-Shot-Pickle-Shot (exactly how it sounds)

    • Indoor Kid Games

  • Texas Hold ‘Em Tournament
  • Dance Dance Revolution
  • Twister
  • Jenga

    • Continue reading →

    September 2, 2008
    Categories: Dear Diary, Picture Pages . Tags: . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

    Free At Last

    If you’ve spent any time with me during the past few months, you’ve doubtless heard me complain about it. Well, I’ve finally done it. I’ve left my job at the little startup that apparently couldn’t. It had to happen. My reasons were many but the biggest of them were money (I wasn’t getting any) and frustration (I was getting plenty). It was almost my two year anniversary with them and I still hadn’t been given any sort of pay raise, despite several meetings pleading my case and persons agreeing that yes, my duties had increased exponentially and yes, I was doing a good job on all counts. I was told repeatedly that we would “see” about getting me more money when certain things fell into place. Basically, I was getting the brush-off while people around me were getting paid way more than they were worth. How could someone who managed a department of 3 people (the department responsible for the product which would ultimately bring in the revenue) get paid less than the average administrative assistant while several others, some of whom were proven to be stealing from and conspiring against the company, got six figure salaries? How could one person make more than twice what MY ENTIRE DEPARTMENT made? How is it fair? How is it just? How is it not borderline indentured servitude? On top of that, there had been verbal abuse from other employees, the stripping of/denial of necessary resources for my department, and a general lack of gratitude for all my hard work for, I would like to again point out, a salary which is less than that of the average administrative assistant. And I was lucky to be getting that. Our paychecks bounced frequently with little done to rectify the situation. Little effort was made to understand what a difficult strain this put on me (and others) financially.

    There are countless other reasons that I shan’t go into. But rest assured, things were very rotten in Denmark.

    So I’ve decided to put an end to it all. I have emancipated myself. And it feels damned good. I’ve got some great things lined up on the career front and each one is infinitely more rewarding and much better compensating. Later, Denmark.

    September 2, 2008
    Categories: Dear Diary . Tags: . Author: Baxter . Comments: 3 Comments

    KEXP BBQ Is Dandy-ish

    This past weekend the Mister and I went to the KEXP BBQ. There were some bullshit moments including shrinking beer cups, and the show starting late thereby forcing the Dandy Warhols (who were the headliners and our whole reason for being there) to cut their set short.

    There were some typical Seattle tragedies such as the sky dumping buckets of rain in August and what I like to call Small Town Disease.

    But there were also magical moments like awesome people watching, delicious Applewood Smoked Tofu Dogs, seeing old friends, the Dandies rocking their curtailed set and…a FREAKING RAINBOW:

    Though I suppose the Dandies time crunch was a blessing in disguise. Since they didn’t have much time, they only played one of their underwhelming new songs. The rest of the set were the hits. I adore Zia’s new Rogue hair and Brent’s 70’s Porn Star Look. But I still hate Courtney’s hat.

    August 12, 2008
    Categories: Dear Diary, Seattle . . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

    I’m Sold on Virgin

    When I first heard that Richard Branson was opening an American version of his airline, Virgin Atlantic, I wondered if it would be as top notch as his European line. American airlines are SO unpleasant these days but they blame it all on gas prices. Since Virgin America would be using the same gas, would his airline be only a shinier version of the turd that is the American airline industry?

    The answer is a resounding NO!!

    This past weekend, my Mister and I flew to San Francisco for my Brother-In-Law’s wedding, and so we finally had to the opportunity to fly Virgin America. I’m pleased to report that it is everything an airline should be:

  • Friendly staff who genuinely enjoy their jobs (as evidenced by the 2 flight attendants who were cracking each other up during boarding)
  • Large, comfortable seats made of cushy leather with a built in head rest
  • Plenty of leg room
  • Drinks served with Ghirardelli chocolate and then, later, a chocolate chip cookie
  • Your own entertainment center featuring games, free satellite TV and pay per view movies. (On longer flights, you can order sandwiches and snack boxes from your seat with your credit card)
  • Funky dance music piped into the bathroom

    • And all this inside a groovy aircraft with pink track lighting and pristine white paneling! I felt like I was flying in a 70’s vision of the future and I loved it. To say that all these new fees other airlines are tacking on is justified in the current economy is rediculous. There is still such a thing as customer service and Virgin has it. They have plenty of things you can spend money on without making you feel like you are being forced to pay for your creature comforts after having dropped a couple hundy on the flight itself. (And by the way, we paid only $160 round trip from Seattle to San Fran). Flying is a travel necessity, but that doesn’t mean it has to be unpleasant. I’m glad someone finally understands that.

    vintage airlineOne additional perk which probably won’t last too long is that the flights were only half full. This means that the chance you’ll have a whole row to yourself is pretty good. I have a feeling this Virgin thing is going to catch on so you’ll probably have neighbors on both sides soon enough. But who cares? Just one of those leather seats is 50 times more comfortable than a whole row of sub-par competitors seats combined.

    Virgin America is the way forward. I can’t wait for them to expand their routes so that I can fly them everywhere. That old coot, Branson, is really onto something.

    August 6, 2008
    Categories: Dear Diary, This is the End . . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

    My Dream Last Night

    Let me tell you it…

    I was in my childhood home in Virginia, as I often am in dreams. I was upstairs with Balthazar Getty and two blond women, one of whom might have been Nicole Eggert. He was assaulting them. He had a gun. I tried to stop him. Somehow, I managed to get the gun away from him, but I couldn’t figure out how to fire it. I frantically fiddled with switches and buttons on the gun whilst pulling the trigger. He laughed and advanced. He was almost on top of me. But then I lucked into getting a shot off.

    lost highwayIt hit him in the chest, on the left. He was so close to me that when he fell forward, he landed on me, knocking us both to the ground. I pried him off of me and stood up. But then he came to and started to lift himself up as well. I saw that I had only him him in the shoulder!

    I still didn’t know how to work the gun. So I ran. I ran down the stairs and into the garage. I worried that automatic garage door would open too slowly and he would catch up to me. But I had no other choice. I was already in the garage. So as soon as it was open wide enough, I crawled under and ran up the steep driveway. A neighbor was across the street. I shouted to him, but he wasn’t the man I knew who lived there, and he either couldn’t hear me or was ignoring me. Balthazar was still behind me, getting closer. He was really angry. If he caught up to me I was dead.

    Then I woke up.

    Now, I imagine I had this dream due to work stress. Dreams in which someone/something is trying to kill me are not at all uncommon. Though they usually aren’t B-list actors. Also, I have been reading a lot about Balthazar traipsing about with Ho-hemian Sienna Miller when his wife’s baby is not even a year old. This makes me think of him as an asshole. But a murderer? Maybe I’ve seen Lost Highway one too many times.

    Anyway, I open the comments to other interpretations.

    July 30, 2008
    Categories: Dear Diary . . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

    « Previous Page — Previous page Next page — Next Page »

    • Calendar

      • January 2026
        M T W T F S S
         1234
        567891011
        12131415161718
        19202122232425
        262728293031  

    • Search