2003-02-14 - 3:01 p.m.

On the internal soundtrack: Alternating selections from my mix CD

In case you were wondering, I was out of town. I need to remember to warn people when I do this, because people actually notice when I'm gone these days. :)

While I was there a coworker asked me how Poindexter was doing. I said, "He's whining a lot because I left him alone at home in Philly." Poor Poindexter.

If you happened to be driving down I-395 at noon on Wednesday and saw a girl in a Stewart plaid flannel shirt, grinning from ear to ear and dancing in her seat, that was me.

On Wednesday, I took the train down to Virginia and spent the afternoon in the office. I had dinner plans in Herndon, which meant sitting in traffic. I needed some music.

As I mentioned in the last entry, I finally caved and decided to start downloading those one-hit-wonder songs from the 1980s and such, where I have no intention of ever buying a full album. I gave a list to Poindexter, but it wasn't very long, so I told him I was going to supplement it with some of his music to fill up a mix CD.

The night before I left, I was going nuts getting some last-minute computer crap done, so he made two mix CDs for me. After a particularly trying evening, I was delighted with the stuff he picked, and said, "How did you know I liked those songs?!" Apparently he had noticed when "your foot was tappin'" when he played his own music.

It makes me INSANELY happy to know that he pays attention to these sorts of subtle clues. Even if his reason is simply that he likes knowing I like his music, the fact that he likes knowing that also gives me the warm fuzzies. And that he remembers the songs where I yell, "Leave that one on!" when he's flipping around the dial. I've been telling him constantly over YM the last two days: "You're the SHIT!"

Some things he picked out for me:

The Toadies' "Possum Kingdom". This song was ALL OVER THE RADIO the first couple times I went to visit him in San Jose after we began dating. He sang it to me a lot (along with the radio), including one time (TMI alert!) in the bathtub. We refer to this as "our song", even though there's nothing specific to us in the lyrics. Although he has the most hilariously suggestive way of singing "...behind the boathouse, I'll show you my dark secret..."

Audioslave's "What You are" -- this was a foot-tappin' giveaway, I think.
NIN's "The Wretched"
Smashing Pumpkins, "1979"

By my request:

"Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys", Traffic
Rod Stewart's "Forever Young"
Spinal Tap's "Big Bottom" and Queen's "Fat-Bottomed Girls", because I love songs about bottoms.
Rage Against the Machine's "Renegades of Funk"
Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride"
T. Rex's "Bang a Gong"

There's more, but I'm too lazy to list it all.

Tangent from the above segment:

I said, "Flipping around the dial."

Nobody flips around the dial anymore, do they?

It's like how the incoming class of 2006 doesn't really understand the expression "sounds like a broken record" and probably doesn't know what the "B side" is.

I'm so old.

It was the damnedest thing, but being in Virginia again made me feel a weird sort of homesickness. I was trying to figure out what it was, because I certainly don't miss the traffic, or the sprawl, or the lack of interesting architecture in most of the suburbs. I think the things I was feeling sentimental about were:

1. The cleanliness. As much as I try to ignore it, Philly is Philthy.

2. The familiarity. I lived there for the better part of 7.5 years, and I know where almost everything is. If I want something, I know where to go to get it. I'm still struggling with that in Philadelphia.

3. The freshness and newness. Philadelphia is very old, and there's a fair amount of old crap mixed in with the cool old stuff. Besides that, I really liked the fact that almost everybody in the DC metro area is from somewhere else, and they bring with them a lot of different perspectives and ideas. Philly, where everybody was born and raised there, sometimes feels sort of limited and narrow in comparison.

Well, #2 will come with time, and possibly #1 and #3 as well, if Center City continues to grow in population and people get fussier about how stuff looks. We shall see. If we get sick of it, we'll move to South Beach or Jacksonville. :)

Speaking of "Philthy", there was a bartender last week, a woman, wearing a shirt that looked like a Phillies tiny-tee, but upon closer inspection (which was demanded by the fact that the word was stretched across her BOO-BIES!) it said "Philthy". Poindexter and I got a huge kick out of that.

My aforementioned dinner plans included dinner with four Northern Virginia LiveJournalers: Kit, Mark, Eric, and Chris. I figured that was about as many people as I could handle at once. And it turned out to be pretty overwhelming, too. I was the first to arrive, and was a nervous wreck -- hands shaking and everything -- until Kit arrived with that delightful smile we rarely get to see in her cam galleries ;), gave me a big hug, and made me feel much better. Then everyone else walked in the door together, and there were more hugs all around.

First thing I wanted to do was just stare at everyone. Seeing a still photograph come to life, when I have preconceived notions of mannerisms and such, is sort of jolting, but in a good way. It happened when I met Renee and Michelle, too, but with it happening with four people at once it was a lot to take in.

A few highlights of the evening:

---

Finding out that Mark and Eric are "Good Huggers". My mother and I both have a deep appreciation for a guy who knows how to hug properly and sincerely -- save me from wimpy half-assed male huggers -- and Mark and Eric were really quite impressive.

Seeing Mark make Kit laugh so hard she had tears running out of her eyes. That was something. I love to see people laugh like that.

Chris and Kit's dimply smiles. I am a complete sucker for this sort of thing. Well, I think it was dimples. All I know is that there's something very fetching going on in the cheek area when each of them smiles.

Finding out the naughty things everyone did as children, and some of the consequences that were paid. (Rock salt! Ouch!)

Seeing Mark say "online freaks!" in a way that makes me laugh every time I think about it.

---

It's always nice to meet people who already know what I am like. There's a certain amount of nervousness that my in-person persona might grate on them in some way, but at least I already know they like my basic personality, and that I can say anything without worrying about shocking them or getting weird looks. It's nice. I must make a point of meeting more LJers, beginning with the Arizona bunch next Saturday.

Gratuitous photos of the day:

I got permission from Poindexter to post these, even though you can see his profile! We don't celebrate Valentine's Day (every day is Valentine's Day with Poindexter. Here's a puke bucket for you...), but I figured it would be nice to post them today anyway.

Both were taken in the early Fall of 1998, I believe, in a park in Reston. Our engagement picture (which appeared in the newspaper) was taken in the same photo session, but these are by far the better photographs. In the first one, I love how you can tell I'm smiling even as we're kissing.

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