Liz got married last month on a farm down in Northfield, her hometown. On a small budget, she threw an amazing party, surrounded by those from every part of her life. She is lucky enough to be close by to so many people she grew up with and unspeakably far from others. But she and Wil are adventure seekers and already planning their next move.
My parents have been on the edge of buying a new puppy as a friend for Fanny and further amusement for them...until now. Last week I got this email from my mother...
Subj: Because your dad is certifiable
Body: since he bought this piglet (see below). The little pig thinks that Fanny is her mother, and tries to suckle the terrified rat terrier. There is never a dull moment in this house.
They asked my what they should name it. I said Winston if it's a boy and Lucy if it's a girl. Lucy, it is. My parents can't shut up about Lucy and I love asking about her. According to reports from my mom and dad, apparently Lucy:
a) Loves to play fight with Fanny, who has warmed up to the piglet. Fanny is obviously bigger so has the upper hand (paw/hoof.) For now. Just give it a few months you holy adorable terror (haha...terror sounds like terrier...haha. WORDPLAY! Haha, I'm lame.) b) Is more potty trained than Fanny. Lucy will go outside immediately. My parents were very proud of that. c) Loves to root around in blankets/hay and burrow her little heart out. Even more so than the beloved rat terrier. d) Will follow behind my dad, trying with all her might to keep up, as he walks Fanny up and down the hill. e) Has become a inside/outside pig. She sleeps in a crate in the basement. They're hoping she's a pot-belly but I don't think it really matters. f) Will be bestest friends forever and ever with Fanny, holy adorable terrior.
Fanny and Lucy's friendship is DEFINITELY a children's story waiting to happen. Like...they've met, developed an immediate connection. They've become best friends, even though their differences are unique and vast. Fanny, the wild beast, will be ostracized from the family after causing too much destruction. In an attempt to separate them, my father will starting wielding animated shotguns. Though Fanny & Lucy love each other and want to remain bestest friends for all of enternity, their differences ultimately tear them apart and they sing a heart breaking ditty that has tears streaming from a 27 year old girl's face.
This is another song on the Bi-Annual Jonesie mix. This song often blares out of my car speakers when I want a joyful release. This video just surfaced in the past few days. The part around the fire. Hot. Everything about it makes me very VERY happy.
The first time I saw M.anifest perform was at the First Ave Best New Bands Showcase. My mind was blown so hard that I somehow managed to wave my hands in the air WHILST taking pictures. It was an embarrassingly awesome sight to be seen.
Also, he's hot. Super hot. And super smart. And super nice. Hot.
My mom's contract was renewed at the high school (big mess, very low funds for public schools (thanks G Dubs), lots of familial crabbiness)and she let me know this by telling me that they could indeed afford to have me get married this year (haha...funny...not gonna happen, SO not even close, though a fiance would be nice right now mainly cause I need a dude to put in my AC.) Then she realized that I'm not my sister, I won't be having a traditional wedding (whenever it happens in the next 1-7 decades) and retracted it by saying "or you know, a destination wedding."
DESTINATION=GHANA!
Just kidding, M.anifest, please don't be creeped out by me. Seriously, I kid! I kid! Besides, I'm too insecure about relationships to allow them to happen, though a Ghana fantasy seems awfully nice right now!!
1) My sister got married. It was amazing and beautiful and intense. My dad did a booty dance to Drop It Like It Hot at the reception. One of the best moments of my life.
2) I bawled for a week straight when I got back from Missouri. We're talking fetal position and pacing bawling. Sometimes, I miss my family and my home city so much that it hurts. Regardless, I still know I could never happily live in Kansas City.
3) I'm back working at the U. Thank god. I still miss my old department like mad and am trying like crazy to get back there. We shall see...
4) I moved out of WonderTwin Manor and am currently subleasing G's Palace until September. With a cat. After Ginger passed away, I became MUCH LESS of a cat person. Also, I miss air conditioning, though sleeping nakie every night is fun.
5) Photography is going extraordinarily well. Getting lots of great gigs through bands and the newspaper. Also, I was a multiple choice option, alongside my mentors, for 89.3's The Local Show on who was the in-house photographer for First Ave. Holy Sh*t! Yes, I still realize I have a helluva long way to go.
6) I shot the Drive-By Truckers at First Ave last week. Though they've become much less radical with the loss of Jason Isbell, it still blew my mind when I finally heard Zip City live. So much so that I HAD to find one of my people to experience it with. Kyle was hidden. Jim had run off. Luckily, I spotted the hat and ran up to Swardson with my shit eating grin and yelled out "THIS IS ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVORITE SONGS!" Also, It sort of dawned on me how lucky I am. I got into music photography not knowing how I would do it or what I was doing or where I was going and there I was with my camera in the barred off area right in front of a sold out crowd in one of my favorite venues in the nation, my face against the stage, as my idols tore it apart a foot away from me. I'm not slowing down any time soon.
7) This madness is on YouTube. Taken out of context of the play and not knowing me, yes, I do realize how bat shit crazy I look. But I'm still really proud of that madness. And the naysayers can continue naysaying. Because I KNOW how lucky I am to have experienced this. So go on and call me annoying or insane because I experience such joy and freedom that no on can take it away. You all could use a little of that!
8) Team Tampax Pearls kicks major ass at 331 pub trivia! We've won two weeks in a row! And I laugh like a crazy woman all through it. Sunday nights have never been so much fun!
9) I have the greatest friends in the world. No lie. They keep me in line, keep me laughing, keep me honest, keep me humbled, keep me having a great time. Morgie and Brian...you have been notified of your assignments but remember you MUST text and call me regularly to make sure I'm not too far inside the Jonesie noggin and going after the inaccessible again. Sha, thanks again for loaning me that slutty blue shirt to wear as I slept in your parents living room! I LOVE YOU ALL!
10) I'm almost done with my Bi-Annual mix. Just tweaking the order and the inclusion of a few songs. Here's videos for a few of the tunes that have meant the most to me in the past six months. Either cause of sobs or booty shakes!
Mark R. Sullivan, the photographer AKA my new hero!
Mark R. Sullivan, thank you endlessly! If Jason Isbell flew in from the ceiling, with the Jersey shore sand still lightly in his hair, that would basically make it my distorted holy trinity of today. THANK YOU FOR THESE RAD SHOTS!
Much thanks to Andrea for taking camera duty on our special night...
The Birthday Girls all dressed up (and as Andrea put it, our only sober picture for about a 30 hour period!)
Birthday piggy back ride from Jesse, my WonderTwin's BF!
Hallelujah dedicated to us Irish style...ummm...yeah. Happy Birthday to Mama!
Chilly Thugs with Fancy Shoes
War Drums on my birthday...yep...that's all I really wanted!
I'm not kidding..Heiruspecs makes me go ape sh*t!
Mom, I (and everyone else who listened to Talk of the Nation last week) now know you cyber stalk me and read my blog. This one is for you! THANK YOU FOR RAISING ME RIGHT, MAMA! I LOVE YOU!
Heidi is a Bruce sister, the ultimate schemer and creator of pit wristbands, AND I LOVE IT!
Sharing our birthday cupcakes! THEY WERE DELICIOUS!
I think I make this face a lot. Especially whilst shaking my Angel Wings.
The Boys: Loomer's Shocker Dance, Kyle's Mad Skillz & Jesse Smirks Behind his Xmen Chops
Ummm...yeah. Plagens is right up there with me. She's a great friend. Who also loves booty music with every fiber of her being.
Andy's Birthday is on May 18th too! T'is CRAZY MADNESS! This time it was a peanut butter cupcake. And it was DELICIOUS!
Which came first: the sandwich or the urinal? Drinking makes me have to go. Many many times. And sometimes you just can't wait.
Before trivia, I thought it would be SUPER hilarious to jump up on the stage that Heiruspecs had played at the night before, in the 331 parking lot, and rap the lyrics to War Drums. I'm a glutton for eternal nerdy white girl with no rhythm punishment. AND I WOULDN'T HAVE IT ANY OTHER WAY! YAAAAAAAAY! WHAT UP ST. PAUL?!!? WHAT UP MIAMI!?!? TMF OPPOSITION. WHAT UP FAMILY!??!?...
After that, much more ridiculous madness ensued. A lot that I don't really remember and I think is probably pretty incriminating (not in the bad BAD way, Mom.) But, dear friends, I STILL managed to make it to work today. WOOHOO!
PS I also scored some seriously awesome loot: gift certificates to Target and Starbucks from my family, last March's Bruce concert ticket from my seriously cool parents, a wiener dog magnet/notepad/and sponge from my sister, a photography book, a gift card to the Fetus (YAY...my FAVORITE store to wander around), an amazing homemade necklace by Genna with totally rad bright red and blue stones, a gorgeous black and white Springsteen print that Cohen took from Bruce's last show here, 4 delicious cupcakes (one of which I may ACCIDENTALLY have eaten off of the floor of the dance club...I really wanna forget that), a print of the infamous WonderTwin reach up to Bruce on stage that Heidi took on her iphone, adorable magnetic wiener dog salt'n'pepa shakers that kiss, gut inducing laughter lunch at a salad bar (where Sean challenged me to a "how many grapes can you fit in YOUR mouth" contest...I schooled him after he gave up at 20. These two old black couples who were all dressed up after church cheered and congratulated me on the win. One of those classy women actually said to Sean "Honey, never challenge a woman to a grape eating contest because next time it won't be grapes in her mouth." HOLLA! I never wanna forget that!), the company of many of my friends.
I wrote this following segment the day I learned of Danny Federici's death, on April 17, 2008. I kept meaning to expand on this but never could. So I post it as is because I want to put it out there.
Last week, I worked a Dental Convention at Xcel. For three days, I woke up at 5am to take a nauseatingly early bus to St. Paul. I left almost every day crying, overwhelmed with boredom and exhaustion. I had spent ten hours printing off nametags for dentists, dental assistants, dental hygenists, dental spouses, dental kids. With a sassy black woman munching ginger snaps on one side and hyper annoying RenFester for life coughing up phlegm on the other, between almost every page of Kitchen Confidential and Pedal Pusher, I stared out the window of the RiverCentre as the same image played over and over again in my head.
I saw our car pulling into the lot across the street. I saw all of us inside that car, busting out of the Honda and dancing across the street, me inevitably wailing the wrong lyrics to my favorite songs. I saw us standing in those lines for the wristband, eating greasy bar food and drinking cold beer in the soft summer spring fall blistering winter light, nervously fidgeting until the pit number was drawn. Running in as only a herd of middle class white honkies could. Securing our spot as close to the stage as we could get, amongst our people, all of us chattering away as we waited to be baptized by these sweaty waters of rock’n’roll.
I spent ten hours watching cars pull into that lot and not one of them was the Honda. I spent my breaks crawling in between a secret stash of shut down soda machines I found in a dark corner of the convention center, clutching my phone as I alternately called Sha and Tabatha. Because I needed two people that had been with me for a long time, had seen the best and worst of me, had danced with me at shows, had screamed lyrics with me. Two people I had grown up with, surrounded by music.
Being at Xcel for ten hours and not having a Bruce Springsteen concert at the end of the day was just hard. Instead, I felt sorry for myself, I’ve barely been able to take photos, write, and for awhile even get my ass up to go to shows. Without that, I honestly feel like nothing.
Today, WonderTwin, an E Street sister, woke up me up to tell me that Danny Federici had died. Bruce’s E Street brother, his band-mate and close friend for over forty years, a legend for so many people. The Phantom. The little monkey man with giant blue eyes who played an absolutely fierce accordian and keyboard.
I have spent the past three weeks, seven months, twenty-six years perfecting the art of enthusiasm, on a constant quest to make the most out of my life. Sometimes, I feel very young. When I talked to Jim today, and he once again referenced how they were dropping like flies, I realized I am young, definitely too young to grasp that cynicism. Too me, even though he had cancer, he was supposed to live forever...or at the very least long enough to grow REALLY old with his family and his friends, with his music.
I don’t know what my life would be without this music. What grabbed me from that first instant were the lyrics. What kept me every day after that, for the past seven years, was the passion on and off the stage…that palpable connection between me and my insides, me and my mom, me and my closest friends, me and my hero, me and thousands of other freaks for this rock’n’roll giant that is and always be Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band.
When you are at those shows, you can't help but feel this insane amount of love. They play for themselves, for each other and for us. And it's an amazing gift that will continue to live as long as we continue to relish in every single recording Danny stood next to Bruce, his Jersey brother forever.
Danny...you'll ALWAYS be the man!
In the past month, a lot has changed. Spring is here. Once again, I can't sit still. I'm getting a lot of great photography opportunities that keep me insanely busy. And I've been surrounding myself with family, friends and lots of music. It's really good.
