Isn't this cool?

My birthdate on the odometer! This was taken back in August, August 17, 2005, to be exact, and I just found it on the old hard drive and thought I'd share. (Pardon the grainy image. My old SE T616 is not known for great picture quality, and I'm sure there's a build-up of lint or stuff on the lens, which never helps, you know.)

My mileage is almost 88,000 now. The lease is up in June, I'm 40,000 miles over the lease limit, and it's only February. When the lease is due, I'll owe $6000 in mileage overage charges alone! It will only cost $11,000 to buy the thing outright. And I love it so much, I'm not giving it up. It needs a bath, though.

The Friday Random Ten: The iPod in the Car Doesn't Count Edition

Am I the only person left doing this?

Fire up the iPod, set it to shuffle, and write down the first ten songs that play. No cheating. No skipping forward.

1. Between a Man and a Woman—Kate Bush
2. Firmaman—Vanessa Paradis
3. Electricity—OMD
4. Blue Skies—Ella Fitzgerald
5. Nunca Mas—Patrick Bruel
6. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!—ABBA
7. Hung Up—Madonna
8. Eldorado Overture—ELO
9. Don't Stop—Anastacia
10. Les hommes qui passent [maman]—Patricia Kaas

I left the apartment this morning at a brisk 7:32. I was on time! And by the time I was halfway down Highway 13 on the way to 580 and the San Mateo Bridge, I realized I had left my iPod at home. Holy Mother of Maude Adams! I cut in front of someone (my apologies) to make the next exit on 13, turned around, and went home to fetch it. Do you honestly think I'm going to spend eight-plus hours in this box without my music to drown out the whiny prenatal candidate for Mommie Dearest next door who knows only how to laugh-talk all day long? Fuck me sideways! I'd rather gouge out my eyeballs! Dear Heaven!

So, even after my unplanned detour, I still managed to get here by 9:17 or some shit. And then I find out from SP that dear, sweet Robyn Jones is headed down to Monterey for the weekend, a week after I was there. That's a big fat egg for me. I have to admit that I had a bit of crush on her, even though I was a big ’mo when I knew her, and there was no doubt ever about that. She's just so damned pretty and smart and funny and classy.

And that's all.

The Friday Random Ten: The Almost-Saturday Edition

Fire up the iPod, set it to shuffle, and write down the first ten songs that play. No cheating. No skipping forward.

1. I Wanna Be with You—Shaun Cassidy
2. On a Clear Day You Can See Forever—Barbra Streisand
3. The Kids—Jamiroquai
4. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five—Paul McCartney and Wings
5. Babooshka—Kate Bush
6. Big Time Sensuality—Björk
7. Ice Cream—Sarah McLachlan
8. À quoi tu sers?—Jean-Jacques Goldman
9. De la neige—Laurence Jalbert
10. Pony Ride—Olivia Newton-John

The first song in this list is from the Shaun Cassidy record, the vinyl album. I had this album when I was a kid, and who knows if it survived the multiple moves from one house to another between 1977 and now. Who knows if my mother didn't make 50¢ on it at a garage sale. In any case, I was bitten by the need to croon over the 70s heartthrob, so I went to Amoeba in the Haight, and for a whopping $3.99, I found a perfectly preserved album, complete with the original poster inside. My gawd, how many times did I stare at the picture on the back of this album and wonder what it was like to touch him. Anyway, thanks to computers, I have digitized the album and can listen to my heart's content from my iPod. And the quality is amazing!

So, I am busy working on our next submission, which is due in a couple of weeks. I am always amazed at how someone can come to work every day, sit around, do nothing, and collect a paycheck without ever being held accountable for their lack of work. And then I'm forced to work late nights and weekends to make sure that the project stays on track despite the sloth of the coworker. Gurl, you know that if I ever missed a deadline, especially an nda, they'd can my ass. Oh, what am I bitching about? Two months ago I was bored shitless, for real, and I was ready to ax this place. Well, I'm still ready to ax this place, only now for a better reason than just being bored. What. Ever. "A bitchin' sailor is a happy sailor." Or so they say...

I've been quite vacillatory for the last few weeks. As I may have mentioned somewhere along the way, I decided that the pharmaceutical industry had lost its shine for me and that I was moving on to greener pastures by the end of 2Q 2006. Well, then I decided that I was too spoiled by the style by which I had become accustomed to living, and I figured that this career was truly the best thing for me. Over the weekend, I decided, yet again, to move on and get the fark out of this mess once and for all...only not right away...I mean, not until maybe June. The end of June...which still qualifies as the end of 2Q 2006.

Rufus Wainwright is playing Carnegie Hall on 14 June singing the entire recording of Judy Garland's concert at Carnegie Hall. Can you absolutely queen out with me and screech like little girls! SP and I are already planning the trip, but tickets won't be on sale until the end of March. So much time to wait! But in the meantime, I've got Belle & Sebastian coming to San Francisco on 21 March, and Depeche Mode at the Shoreline on 28 April. The Pretenders are playing the Warfield sometime at the end of March, which would be cool, but I'm supposed to be out of town that week. Yeah, right. We'll see if that happens.

Oh well. Gotta find a way to whittle away a few hours.

That's all.