the end of an era

yesterday, our roomie kevin moved out. he's moving back to stl to finish his graphic design degree and (i assume) to be closer to his girlfriend. william, our new roomie, has already been living on our bedcouch (quite literally 2 mattresses and some pillows in our living room) for the past 3 weeks, so nothing's really changed that much. he's a youngin- only 19 years old, but is already making a reasonable living as a tattoo artist. every family member i have told this to has reacted with the same line - "dont get a tattoo!". joe even went so far as to say that if i want one, he'd take me to someone 'reputable'. "just dont get one from him." i find this amusing for a number of reasons, but mostly because everyone assumes that i want a tattoo or that somehow being connected to a tattoo artist will make me want one. maybe people just dont know this about me, but i hate needles (having blood drawn is one of my least favorite activities) and i find the idea of having one stabbed into me repeatedly a little nauseating. also, if you've ever seen an infected tattoo before, it's pretty much all the deterring you need. oddly enough, watching someone being tattooed is kind of fun, and the buzz of the gun is relaxing. anyway, kevin will be missed (although his and parley's almost monthly falling-outs will not be, nor his constant need for air conditioning- our house was like a freezer for the past month) .

my computer is still busted, which means i dont have access to my scanner and cannot post pictures i just got of my 4th weekend. i have a hard drive for it (an old, small one), but parley doesnt want to install it because it takes a long time and since i'm planning on getting a newer bigger one later anyway, what's the point in wasting his time... sigh. maybe one of my technologically advanced brothers (in law or not) could send me detailed instructions on how to do it myself...could it really be that hard?

regardless, i'll write about more interesting things when i can post pictures...

suz update

so my blogging's been a little sparse as of late...but in my defense i've been out of town and my computer fitzed out (some kind of hard drive problem...it kept shutting off for no reason). last tuesday i went home to celebrate joe's birthday, which was fun. thursday i drove to jackson (again) to practice with the dodgeball team i was recruited into last month, and then friday we all drove up to schaumburg, illinois for the annual nada dodgeball tournament. i'll do a separate post for the dodgeball stuff once i get some pictures of the team from josh, but i will say that gorilla's choice did not do as well as anticipated...

so i just got back from this job interview, and i think it went pretty well. this internal medicine group is looking for a new secretary, and i was one of the lucky few chosen for an interview. the doctor said that he liked my resume, the fact that i was a college graduate, and all of the phone experience i have. i think that the interview went pretty well- he asked me why i wanted to be a medical receptionist when i could be teaching, and i had a dynamite response (luckily i had anticipated this question). plus, i had a really good outfit, and something about wearing business casual just makes me feel confident and smart... he said that there were a few more people to go through and that i'd know next week. it sounds to me like a pretty good job...full time, medical and dental, plus parley told me that most doctors treat their receptionists very well because they like to retain loyalty. so, here's hoping. if not this, than something else...

guess who has a job interview today...

me.

tales of the unemployed

in an effort to convince mom and dad that i'm doing more than just watching tv and 'lollygaging' here in columbia, i would just like to say that today i looked through the classifieds and emailed my resume to 5 different places. it is my hope that at least three of these will interview me, and one will hire me.... but i'm not stopping there: i'll mail my resume out to 5 more places tomorrow...when the mail goes out. it's strange- the majority of the ads i see for employment fall under the 'driver' category or the 'drug counselor' category. i guess this could be explained by columbia's location in the heart of the midwest: we're a transportation hub and we have a lot of meth labs. anyway, i did promise dad that i'd have a job by the end of the month, so i'm really hoping that something pans out...

lowdowns update

new pics up on the site. see the whopping 5 pictures taken at shellshocked, and many blurry photos of our final show.

don't be like this guy

as a result of cleaning many a dirty sink and being overall fed up with the lack of cleanliness in my house, i took a cue from the u.s. office of war information and posted the following above our sink....


compare to the original.

let's hope it works.

my unholy ACTING TALENT...

josh always says that fun doesn't just create itself in jackson... so mix two parts boredom, 1 part creativity, and sprinkle in a couple dozen inside jokes....and you get the gumbo that is no budget pictures. josh and his friends have created 2 feature length films (both bond spoofs) and several shorts over the years, all of which can be viewed on the site. i had the extreme pleasure of being in a no budget short last november, entitled 'garden variety monkey bars'. jon reno, nbp webmaster extraordinare, finally got the full short up on the site a few weeks ago, so i encourage you all to check it out. it's only about 20 minutes, and you'll gain new material to make fun of me with...who could ask for more? if you're feeling even more adventurous, sample the other nbp wares. my personal favorites are 'thunderblah!' and 'systems engaged' (i'm in it for about 2 seconds- play 'where's suz?'). for the super-adventurous, leave a note on the nbp forum about how much you loved the movies. the guys always like to hear from new people, especially if they're singing praises.

this shameless plug for no budget pictures was in no way influenced by the members of nbp or its affiliates.

see suz act. act, suz, act.

yeah, i swiped this picture from the site... please dont sue me, jon.

sometimes life provides its own jokes

while i was in jackson for the 4th, we took an excursion to cape girardeau to eat at huddle house (kind of a step up from waffle house, but a step below dennys). they had all kinds of promotional pamphlets up at the front, and one in particular caught my eye...



i personally couldn't imagine anything more thrilling.

is it better to burn out or to fade away?

well, the last lowdowns show has come and gone. if there is one thing that i could say that i'll definately miss about not being in school anymore, it would be playing in this band. i only wish that we'd formed earlier, that i'd had more time to practice and come up with better parts, and that we'd played more shows. but even though josh, daniel, and i are all in different places right now and the band has run its course, we feel as though we'll always be lifelong lowdowns members. i'm sure that we'll pull togeter a reunion show at some point down the line.

for our last show, josh was able to get more than 15 people to drive up from jackson to see us, including his parents. some of his friends even donned some 'dapper-wear' to give the crowd an old timey flair. daniel was also able to pull in a fair number of people- moslty young women. at one point josh gave me a nudge and motioned for me to turn around to see about 8 girls surrounding daniel, all laughing and giggling. it was good to see the band's official swoonfodder doing his job... (ironically, daniel is the only bandmember in a relationship). and then there was me. i asked 3 people to come, and two of them showed up. parley, the one who didnt show, had a gig of his own in illinois. despite my shortcomings for drawing a crowd, the artisan was packed.

the show started off without a hitch. we breezed through time of your life and rockytop like there was no tomorrow, and i dare say that even i sounded good on gone for good. we reached a few bumps in the road when josh had to tune his banjo and daniel left the stage to use the bathroom. there i was, standing in front of the crowd like a deer in headlights. usually, i leave the witty banter to josh and daniel because they're really good at it, but now i was faced with a crowd to entertain. my mind went completely blank and i had no idea what to say, and the first things that came to mind were gr's elephant jokes. i got a few pity laughs, but i must say that both the crowd and i were relieved when daniel came back on stage. people often say that i'm the 'mystique' of the band, and i think the illusion is best completed when i dont speak.

on our last number, tell it to me, numerous things went wrong. i fudged my solo, daniel's guitar quit (faulty cable or something), and we were left with dead air for about 7 seconds while he switched out. but the best part came at the end when we all jumped in the air and hit our final note- the sound guy was right on and killed the lights when we landed, so it felt like we'd just finished an arena rock show...it was a fantastic rush.

afterwards, i proceded to use my feminine wiles to hawk several copies of 'sing into the can', a recording of our live kopn shown (for your very own copy, go to the tsl website for ordering instructions). we only asked a dollar for them, but several people pushed 5's my way and didnt ask for change. i sold every single copy (i think 20 in all). we emptied our tip jars and counted a total of $96 dollars- our fans were extremely generous. we drove to josh's house for an afterparty consisting of futurama, a trip to ihop, naps, a trip to the big tree (i had to drive gabe's big truck with 4 people crammed in the back), and finally sleep at 5:30am.

it was a good day.

our last lowdowns group shot, along with our opening act, doubting thomas. the guy next to josh is his cousin- cant you see the family resemblance?

in the background, you can see josh's friend blake in a snazzy white polyester suit.

give several reasons why

so i realize that i havent posted anything in quite some time, mostly due to the fact that i havent been home. the whole reason why i started up the blogging thing was because i was bored and jobless and needed something to occupy my daylight hours. over the past week and a half, however, i've suddenly had things to do, thus cutting down on my blogging time and capabilities. i will be home on friday, though, and i have much to catch up on. future posts will include a recap of the last lowdowns show, tales from utah, the 4th of july jackson style, and my brush with insanity in lawrence.