visitors from another land

this past weekend, i've been lucky enough to have friends come and visit where the wonder that is oregon/the pacific northwest can finally be understood. since i haven't truly lived in portland after graduating from high school, it's been so much fun to "rediscover" the city that i was born and raised in. i *heart* home.

credit card debt...boo.

it's been over 2.5 years since i've upgraded my phone. according to t-mobile, this makes me eligible for what they call "the big discount." so yesterday, i went to the store at washington square and bought the samsung stripe for $30. but after taking it home and trying it out, i didn't like it much. enter grace and joe - my geekdom gurus. with a few prods, i was persuaded to believe that i needed a blackberry. behold my new purchase:



i've never had a "cool" phone before. it's scary how much i like having the pearl, even if i have no idea how to use it to its full potential yet. but at least now, i can make phone calls. a couple of hours ago, i couldn't even find phone numbers. yay! progress.

the other side

catching up with my friend from high school involved checking out a great tapas bar, toro bravo, and then going to a birthday party for pica at holocene. being at pica's b-day party @ holocene cemented the fact that i'm a total granny, in case i was still on the fence. it was loud and full of people. that was enough to make me crave being at home/bookstore/coffee shop with a book. even so, i was thoroughly entertained by the following:

• 2 white guys in skinny pants doing "pop 'n lock" - poorly
  
• a black guy in flannel - it just seemed wrong, but possibly only found in portland?
  
• white people dancing - my roommate once told me that white people dance a particular way - she was right. my co-worker from seattle said the same (she is white), and she told me about what she calls "the white man's underbite" which only appears in dancing.
• music (i use the term loosely) by these guys - it was difficult to take these guys as seriously as they took themselves. i couldn't understand/hear a thing they were saying; it was just too much, but i did think they were unintentionally hilarious.
  
• hip-hop guys - they were pretty fun, if you ignore some of the lyrics.

after all that, my head hurt...a lot. i went home and crashed. i so can't hang with the hipster art crowd - it's too exhausting to be all sorts of "different" - too much effort is involved.

media update

movies to watch:

• once - indie movie/musical with a great soundtrack
• transformers - self-explanatory.
• ratatouille - clever and fun

summer tv:

• psych
• burn notice

music:

• once soundtrack
• james morrison - quickly replacing my previous music crush - jason mraz
• pink
• mandy moore - wild hope
• jon mclaughlin
  

dragging my feet...

i'm supposed to be packing right now. i do not like packing. instead, i'm playing around with simpsonizeme when i should be packing. sigh.