Sunday Mop Up 10/08/06

Money

I’ve lived the past week on cash, since my debit card was lost along with my wallet and checkbook last weekend. This proved to be a bigger pain in the ass than I had suspected. Keeping cash on my person wasn’t the real issue. What I hated was, when I paid for things in cash, people were handing CHANGE back to me. I forgot how annoying it is to walk around with a pocketful of coins. I’ve "jingled" as I’ve walked all week. Grrr! Then, each night, I’ve had to unload 5 pounds of this metal out of my pants pockets. Grrr! And I know damned well that most of it is going to end up in the bottom of my washing machine, or clang around in my dryer when I do laundry. By the way: do we really need pennies anymore?

When they first came out, I was highly suspicious of debit cards. In fact, I refused to use one for years. Now, I can not fucking WAIT to get my replacement card. Lugging real money around sucks.

Music

Bought a new cd this week "Boys and Girls in America" by The Hold Steady. Imagine Bruce Springsteen from back in his "Greetings from Asbury Park" days being backed by Counting Crows with Angus Young from AC/DC sitting in. Kinda-sorta. (shrug!)

The singer doesn’t "sing" so much as ramble in a three or four note range, but his lyrics are amazingly powerful. His backing band is just brilliant. The guitarist and keyboard player alternately complement each other and compete to outshine each other. The arrangements for each song are intricate, lush, and almost epic in their construction. And, yet, it totally rocks! By no means a "sing along" kind of experience, this is music that you keep very still while listening to, because there is so much to take in. Nice to hear a fresh rock and roll record again.

If you are interested, you can check them out at this site and hear the whole album.

Mom

She phoned to tell me that she has a cat now. My mom, the Great Dane aficionado, has switched to Siamese cats. Ookay… She found this cat at The Humane Society. I love it when people rescue animals. I’m proud of her. This is a woman who, numerous times in her life, has spent hundreds and hundreds and HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS of dollars on a single pedigreed puppy.

She called this week and spent half of our conversation TALKING TO THE CAT (remind me to tell you sometime about how I feel about people who talk "baby talk" to their pets). She’s been feeling lonely and admittedly depressed, so I am pleased she has a new companion. That cat is gonna have an interesting life.

My Blog

BlogAmp has announced that they are going to start charging for their service starting October 15th. So, don't be surprised if "jimmy's jukebox" just up and vanishes one of these days in the very near future.

I’ve added a little slide-show thang up in the right hand corner of the page. As new pics of me surface, I’ll add them there. This is a big deal to me, because I am WAY camera shy and hate having my picture taken. But, in a continuing effort to love and accept myself for who I am, I shall step out of my "comfort zone" and display my mug for anyone who happens by to see. Hoo-rah? Yikes!