who goes to the beach in january anyway?

i don't know if you know about my current situation or not, but to make a long and ridiculous story short, caitlin and i barely venture out of our room so as to avoid my family. well, on sunday we were feeling particularly cabin-feverish, so we went to the beach! it was really sunny and i wanted to play with my camera (canon eos650 that chris hock gave me a few months back). it was BEAUTIFUL out, sunny with some clouds, upper 30/lower 40's with light wind. i don't think caitlin had ever been to the utopian tourist trap that is seaside heights, so that's where we went. even in the middle of winter, the place is still a fucking trash dump. we walked the entire length of the boardwalk and then walked down to the water. we looked so funny in our winter jackets and boots, but it was very calming and just plain nice. i haven't finished the roll of film yet in the canon, so here are some photos i took with my craptacular cybershot.


caitlin is probably going to be mad at me for posting this one...i think it's funny though.


i kinda really like this one. the sky, water, and sand kinda split the photo into thirds.


a sort of self portrait. hi, mom!








shortly after taking this, all of the pigeons flew up to the wires...if i had waited a little longer, i could have had a really fucking awesome shot...but i'm impatient.

since i've been gone

***way awesome video alert***

thanks for the laughs, ali!

i don't have much to say, so here's a great video of the always awesome Ted Leo doing "Since U Been Gone" and "Maps".

i was really hoping to make it to this year's south by southwest (sxsw) festival in austin, tx. unfortunately i had to go and be a retard and didn't get an oil change soon enough so my engine seized. it would have been a really fun trip and a cool experience, but i'll just have to wait til next year.

in other news, Mama D is sending my banksy book out tomorrow. this is pretty much the only thing i have to look forward to, and i'm pretty excited.

oh, and you should probably make sure to watch the new american gladiators show.

LOLlerskating

Ali G got rollerskates for christmas. i'm totally jealous. we went to roller magic today. it was awesome. yay, simple sentences.

relief

well, i'm extremely glad that the holidays are over. i think i've got some time to breathe now. Instead of exchanging gifts this year, my parents decided to take us to Disney World. call me a sucker, but i love that place and i always will; HOWEVER, it definately takes a certain kind of asshole to enjoy christmas music as much as the fine folks at disney do. i think if i hear any of the 12 songs they played (continually, over and over) within the next 6 months, i might go postal. although, i do have a special affinity for the song "must be santa", merely for the parodies we made about students at school. overall, disney was fun. my father's inability to actually listen to anyone provided at least 35 fights per day, but in retrospect they were funny. he told me to "fuck off" while we were in epcot because when he butted into a conversation i was having with my mom, i told him it didn't concern him. funny.

the day before we left for disney, our little grey cat, spanky got hit by a car. it was so incredibly sad. megan and lauren saw it happen. i feel really terrible about that. the two of them went to go see how he was after the heartless person continued to driving without even so much as breaking. spanky sprung up and flew into the woods. the twins spend HOURS searching for him, but since it was night it was really hard to see. our flight was the next day, and again we searched all over, but couldn't find him. we left food for him, in case he came back while we were away. it was so so sad. well, wouldn't you know, cats really do have 9 lives because our little kitty cat came back while we were away and lauren's friend (who was feeding the other cat) brought him to the vet and helped take care of him until we came back. poor little spanky had to get one eye removed and has his jaw wired because he broke his upper and lower jaw. it's really unfortunate that he got hit and was hurt, but we're so relieved that he's back and that he's probably going to pull through. for the time being, megan has to feed him through a tube. it's kinda gross, but she's just glad to have spanky.

we were supposed to leave orlando on friday the 28th at 9pm, except that when we got there they informed us that our flight had been changed and we got there in time to miss the last flight home. son of a bitch! now, i needed to be home that night because i was driving up to boston the very next morning. after a lot of screaming, my dad was able to get us booked on a flight for 8:30am, but that was just not going to work for me. long story short, i got myself on a flight all alone and made it home for only $100 in addition to my ticket. not bad.

boston was great. i drove up with jen and matt sell. i love them. there were many sing-alongs. a few 20-seconds-long videos. some really great pictures. it was exactly what i needed. jen and i went to the Mighty Mighty Bosstones' Hometown Throwdown #10. i don't know if you're aware or not, but MMB was like one of my favorite bands back in jr high and high school. my friend ben and i used to talk every year about going to throwdown every year, and for whatever reasons we couldn't go. so to be able to go this year was such a throwback. i actually sent ben a message while at the show. there are certain aspects of my past that i miss, and i wish i had a little more initiative to maintain those relationships.