dianaschnuth

Hey! It’s my birthday. How ’bout that. I actually forgot until I got to work and saw two birthday cards on my desk.

Don’t feel any older. Still in my late 20’s. Got my presents last weekend. No cake on Atkins. Um… yeah.

I’m going to bed now.

OMG. You will never believe what I just saw out my window.

I was sitting here at my computer, contemplating going to bed, when I heard a car pull up the road. (One of the benefits of living on a dead end: all traffic is either lost or coming to your house.) It didn’t sound like any car I knew—the muffler was pretty noisy, so it wasn’t Aaron. Then I heard it pull up the driveway and turn around… but it didn’t go away. The rumbling chug was still outside. I started to get a little freaked out, so I headed up to the front door to look out the peephole. All I could see was that a car was parked with its lights on, somewhere behind the giant pine tree (which is to say, by our house somewhere) and it had gotten close enough to trip our motion-sensor floodlight. I decided I needed a better vantage point.

I went upstairs again to the small bedroom and looked out the open blinds. I figured I was relatively safe, standing in near-total darkness inside. From there I could tell that there was a bluish station wagon parked on the opposite side of the road, and as I watched, the driver turned off the headlights. It looked like two people in the car, or a person and a dog—I couldn’t tell which. Then I remembered that the crate of camera equipment was in the room with me, including Aaron’s binoculars. I foraged for those, and looked out ever so carefully, so as not to be spotted.

The driver was a black man, a young adult, and his seat was in the reclined position. His head turned toward me, and I freaked for a second as I thought he’d spotted me, but he turned away again. As I was trying to ascribe honest motives to him (maybe he just needs a place to grab some sleep?), I saw motion in the car. It became a particularly rhythmic motion. And you’ve probably guessed it by now: it was someone giving him a blow job.

I felt kind of bad for the guy on one hand, because I’ve been there: trying to find a place, anyplace, to go and get it on. To make matters worse for this fella, though, the wind kept triggering the motion-sensor on the floodlights by the garage, so it kept interrupting them. I wonder if it was good for him, anyway; I heard his car rumble away as I was writing this entry.

I’m glad it was just someone getting nookie, though, and not someone casing the joint. I was seriously freaked out for a few minutes there.

Oh, yes. Civ III is perfectly evil. I think I got five hours of sleep last night, and waited until this morning to take my shower.

So, on my way to work, I rolled down both passenger-side windows just an inch or two and turned on the panel fan, to help my hair dry. Of course, I ended up running a couple minutes late, and just barely got caught by the damn train that crosses Holland-Sylvania on my way out to Airport Highway. D’oh! At least I didn’t catch the School Zone lights, too. At any rate, I got to work just in the nick of time, hustled in, and clocked in only one minute before I would have been officially late.

…Did I mention I’d rolled my windows down?

Fast-forward to 5:00pm. I went to get in my car, and my seat was damp. WTF? Then it hit me: Hey, dumbass, you left your windows down! It had rained like a motherfucker all afternoon, so not only was my seat damp, but the passenger’s seat was damp, the digipak that had been sitting on said seat was damp and warping, and the dashboard and gearshift and the inside of the windshield were all beaded with rainwater. Good Lord! I was almost afraid to start the car. I mopped some components dry with my sleeve and hoped for the best.

In the end, I arrived home with a damp ass and a full dose of God-I’m-so-stupid. Toweled off the inside of the car for Aaron’s trip to UPS, and left the towel on the driver’s seat for him (driest side up). Aaron’s so good to me, though; he was only moderately miffed at all the CDs that got wet (mainly because all but one were CD-R copies), and he kept telling me not to get down on myself about it. He told me he loves me, and I told him that doesn’t make me any less incompetent. But I felt better, anyway.

On a lighter note: I’m working on programming my The 90’s: Volume 2 mix CD.

Aaron and Kris Heath have told me that Volume 1 is more of a 90’s-in-Cleveland mix, rather than a 90’s-in-Toledo mix. Hey, it’s where I grew up. Volume 1 goes a little something like this:

1. The Smashing Pumpkins: Disarm (1993)
2. Collective Soul: December (1995)
3. The Sundays: Wild Horses (1992)
4. The Gin Blossoms: Until I Fall Away (1992)
5. The Lemonheads: Shame About Ray (1992)
6. Nirvana: Serve the Servants (1993)
7. Bad Religion: Infected (1994)
8. James: Born of Frustration (1992)
9. REM: Losing My Religion (1991)
10. Michael Penn: No Myth (1989)
11. The Judybats: Being Simple (1993)
12. Toad the Wet Sprocket: Walk on the Ocean (1991)
13. Bush: Glycerine (1994)
14. Martin Page: In the House of Stone and Light (1994)
15. Oasis: Champagne Supernova (1995)
16. Red Hot Chili Peppers: Under the Bridge (1991)

Obviously, I was going for more early-90’s, not mid- or late 90’s. Oasis was a little after the time frame I’d wanted to stick with, but I had run out of ideas at the time. But this mix was made in May 2003, so I’ve had a year to ruminate about my other favorite 90’s tunes.

When Amy was visiting, I bought some used “huH” CD’s from Finders. (Remember that warped digipak on the front seat…?) huH was the best music magazine ever, even though it only lasted a year. The magazine itself was a square format, with cutting-edge design, and it came with a sampler CD of bands that were featured in the magazine. (I forget the name of the famous cutting-edge magazine I learned about in my Graphic Design classes, but the people who designed that magazine also designed this one.) Anyway, these CD’s reminded me of some almost-one-hit-wonder bands from the 90’s, like Letters to Cleo and Buffalo Tom. There are a bunch more bands like those that I’ve completely forgotten about… but maybe, with a little help from my friends, I can come up with a better mix of 90’s hits (and not-quite-hits) than my first one.

Here are my thoughts so far: Buffalo Tom (what was their big song?) / Letters to Cleo (same here) / James: Laid / The Cranberries: Linger / The Sundays: Where the Story Ends / Nirvana: All Apologies / Stone Temple Pilots: Sour Girl

Again, I want to keep it early to mid-90’s—nothing after, say, 1995. Those songs are different memories for me. See, the early 90’s are high school and summer and hanging out alone in the apartment I shared with my Mom, while the mid-90’s are college and staying home for a semester (in a new, nicer apartment, but with Gary) and returning and meeting Aaron and later living with a hellish fluffy roomate for two weeks. The late 90’s are living with Amy and working for RCC and beginning to get disenchanted with popular music. So, first, we’re going for the early 90’s.

Main goals of the mix: 1.) Stay in the early 90’s. 2.) Make it stuff that got radio play, especially on the alternative stations. (I miss 107.9 The End out of Cleveland. They were my favorite station EVER.) 3.) And help me find some less mellow stuff, please? I need at least a couple rockin-out songs to balance the happy relaxed mellowness of the rest.

Any ideas?