Feel like I'm gonna drown in this strange town.

Last night I had a lovely time at herownsociety's goodbye dinner though I had a hard time keeping it in the front of my mind that she's moving away. I have faith that livejournal will help keep us together. And now I'll have another reason to go visit Austin.

My vacation week was approved by my boss today. One full week of no office and not because I'm racing out of town. I'm doing the at-home vacation thing, at least until I decide to disappear for some of those days. Though as far as work is concerned, it wouldn't really matter if I was at home or not as long as my ass is not in this chair in this desk.

While it's tempting to not make plans for those days and keep things lowkey and open, I know I'd be at-risk for slipping into a partial comatose state and when I wake up it would be Sunday night before going back to work and the only goal achieved would be "Get up-to-date on Days of Our Lives". For the most part the week would include: pre-packing cleaning out of apartment (i.e. pick out the good stuff that might actually get me money if I sell it), apartment-hunting, job-applying, and writing. And sleeping-in and going to at least one matinee by myself and hanging out with Myles. I should hang a to-do list in the bathroom (not to be confused with the "to-do list" by my bed....).

My day started off so productive but has slowed to a glacier pace. Once I finish eating lunch I will walk around to get my blood flowing, then come back and achieve the bare minimum of office work before starting work on my "gender and the psychological cock" essay that I've assigned myself to write.

I don't normally say this type of thing, but I'm so glad it's friday.

You are free.

Liza made this mix CD for my birthday that keeps getting better. I mean, it started off pretty damn good since the first track was Barry Manilow's "Looks Like We Made It". The first week when I was listening to it, I kept hearing this other track and think, "damn this voice sounds familiar...No Doubt? No, that's not it...." I'd plan on doing a google search on the lyrics, but would promptly forget until the next time I played the CD (and then forget again). I finally put it together that it was the latest Jewel single, "Intuition", which I had heard once before when I caught the end of the scary scary video.

I have to write about this song. Namely, I have to write about how this song makes me feel. It's this volatile feeling of wanting to take your friend's skanky ex-girlfriend in the backseat of your friend's car, mixed with the desire to curl up in the fetal position and cry about the state of the world. I find the feeling to be in the same category as my strange adolescent boy-morphing-into-daddy/girl crush on Kelly Clarkson whenever I hear "Miss Independent". Needless to say, I listen to these songs heavily.

Included on this mix is Shelley Duvall's song "He Needs Me" from the Robert Altman movie version of Popeye, which got a brief renaissance because of it's placement in Punch-Drunk Love. The swell of the strings, the chugging along of the organ, the sweet poignancy of her mediocre soprano voice: a strange recipe for a tune that makes my heart wrench and want to slow dance.

People can be so snooty about pop music, but I can't help but believe there's an artform in it when it elicits such complicated emotional responses from me.