Beer on an empty stomach, it does a buzz good!

[melcreada]

Finally, after taking way too long, I bring forth answers to a meme provided by the lovely sardonicynic. Girl, how you managed to fill out like 6 of these in the time it took me to do one is truly amazing. And humbling. LOL...

If anyone wants to take part, here is the meme - I will oblige with the questioning!

Comment with "Come at me, bro," and:
→ I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can get to know you better.
→ Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
→ Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions.

1. Sometimes, a girl's just gotta dance it out. What's your go-to playlist for melting away the stress of the day? (Bonus points if it's between seven and ten songs!)

As I whittled my list (oh, believe me...there was whittlin'!), I realized I only had a couple of songs made in the 2000s. Ah,well. I am old and proud!


The Middle - Jimmy Eat World

The anthem for all the self-doubters. Upbeat, soothing, and just one of my favorite songs in the universe...seriously, this song always comes on when I am at my random nadir for the month/week.


Just a Girl - No Doubt

Gwen Stefani rocks my socks and makes me go 'Hell,yeah!' but I don't dance to this song so much as jump up and down to it.


Suavamente - Elvis Crespo

When I lived in San Diego, we used to go salsa dancing at swank downtown bars and EC had a huge rotation - listen to this song and your feet will know what to do. Video. So. Bad.


I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor

Cheesy, but I grew up in the age of disco and this song reminds me of dancing in my bedroom with my sister, singing into my hairbrush long before I knew anything about triumphing over a broken heart.


Message of Love - The Pretenders

I used to love blasting this song on my headset when I was under the gun at work...I swear it makes me work faster, even as I fight the urge to boogie in my seat and beat on my desk like a drum.


Always - Erasure

Not so much a dancing song as a swaying song, but I love love love Erasure and this song makes me so happy remembering a time in my life when listening to this meant getting ready to go out, long midnight drives, and being punch-drunk in love. I am so glad that this song makes me remember the good times and not the "die, rat-bastard, die!" portion of that relationship.


Club Can't Handle Me - Flo Rida

OMG, totally your fault I play this song all the time!!! You sent me that AWESOME youtube video and I watched it so much, I couldn't not buy the song...it just makes me feel good to dance around my room to this.


Steal My Sunshine - Len

Haha...my brother and I LOVE this song! It's so sunshiney and boppy and completely not our tastes, yet such a joyful beat that I dare anyone not to like it.


No Myth - Michael Penn (best looking Penn brother IMHO)

Favorite song of my entire 10th grade life. Great beat and the greatest chorus ever written:

What if I was Romeo in black jeans?
What if I was Heathcliff?
It's no myth.
Maybe she's just looking for
Someone to dance with


Boys Boys Boys - Lady Gaga

I am rather a fan of Lady Gaga's catchy tunes. There's humor and a "been there/done that" recognition to her lyrics. Plus, I just can't resist a good song about going out and catching a boy's fancy. ;)



2. Can we talk about your promotion? (If so, consider this a free-range venting opportunity.) What's the best aspect and/or unexpected perk, and what's the worst drawback?

It's fine to talk about it. I am slowly coming to terms with my new status and trying to figure out my responsibilities. The best part of the job, hands down, is the freedom. No more 60-hour work weeks, no more nervous, ill-prepared boss having spasms and asking me to knock out ridiculously complex projects before lunch. Taking time off is easy peasy and I don't have to work weekends any more. Yay!

As to the negative, I am definitely out of my depth - I would benefit from some accounting or auditing classes for the terminology alone. The math and the procedure writing, I get. The rest is just kind of bzuh?! However, the thing I find the most difficult to deal with is the backstabbing atmosphere. Everyone talks about everyone else; they undermine each other every chance they get. It's just...gross. Especially since almost everyone in the unit is older than I am. How can I be more mature than them?! It makes me completely closed off to my new team, since I refuse to take part in the gossip. I would talk to the VP about it if I wasn't sure that she allowed it, even encouraged it by some of her comments and actions. A disappointing discovery, but one I will just have to work out. Bummer, though.



3. Congratulations! You've just landed your absolute dream job! Better yet, your favorite fictional character is delivering the news in person. Who is he/she, and why have you picked him/her as your personal Hermes?

Ahaha - I went back and forth on this so many times, you just don't know! So many of my favorite fictional heroes are brave, tragic, eloquent...but kind of downers! I want someone I can grab hands with and jump up and down and squeal and then have a mini-meltdown about how I'm not good enough for the position.

So, I choose Howell Jenkins: the hilarious, self-absorbed, skirt-chasing, poetry-mis-quoting wizard from Howl's Moving Castle by Dianna Wynne Jones. I would love to be hit on by someone who thinks he is Beau Brummell's incarnation (and I am sure he would obligingly try to get my digits before imparting the big news because, Hell, it's my fantasy). Howell would join in my joy because celebration and fun is what he is all about. Although he might actually try and talk me out of working altogether. Hm. And he would shake his head at my trepidation and make infuriating jokes until I realized that hello! I just landed my dream job!



4. By some cosmic, karmic redistribution, you have one do-over for one conversation/situation/decision. What is it, and why? How does this mulligan affect your present?

Oh, dear. So many wrong decisions and wasted chances have brought me to where I am now and who knows which bad idea will take me into tomorrow? LOL. I guess if I could have one do-over, I would have stayed in California after the Dreaded Ex kicked me out of our apartment. I even looked at places with my buddy Lynn, who was trying to move out of her 10-year marriage. We saw one particularly tempting place, in an older and quiet neighborhood, about a block from the beach.

I fell in love with all the dark wood accents and the 60s-style kitchen. But I knew in my heart that if I stayed in San Diego, the DE would have access to me and I wasn't nearly strong enough to turn him away. I think that I could have been happy in California because, honestly, the only thing I didn't like about the state was that he was in it. But I was scared - it's like I was prescient and could see how much more difficult it would be to get over him if I stayed nearby.

I don't know. Now it seems like such a weenie decision. I mean, I had a good job, friends, and had found an apartment near the beach that I could afford. How much more perfect did I want it? But in the end, I apologized to Lynn, packed my bags, and came home. I think if I had stayed, I would have met someone new, started a new life, and I would be living in freaking California! The downside is I would probably be a lot poorer because it is so expensive there. But who cares when you have the ocean up the street?!



5. What piece of poetry is the one you can't imagine not having in your reading life?

I want you to know I had to get all Sophie's Choice about my poetry, which I wouldn't do for just anybody, LOL!

However, this one just seemed to fit. I keep this poem as a memory on live journal, on the wall of my cubicle at work, and in the back of my mind on mornings when I don't think I can pull this carcass through another day. It reminds me of what is really important and helps me take a step back so I don't get so hyper-focused on the minutae of my life.


The Laughing Heart
   Charles Bukowski

your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is a light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous
the gods wait to delight
in you.

Comments

[sardonicynic]

I hope you had yourself a phenom holiday weekend, m'dear! (El Jay was being such a brat yesterday, this comment got eaten twice before I shook my fist at the unhelpful binary in sad-faced defeat. Grr argh!)

Ahaha, I have only been able to spend some quality time with rounds of questions thanks to saving said questions in a Google doc, and chipping away at my own long-winded answers during lulls in the workday. Our office is nice and slow, for the moment — YAY SUMMER, YAY DOCTORS WHO TAKE VACATIONS INSTEAD OF IMPLEMENTING NEW RESEARCH PROTOCOLS.

But. FFFFFFF this comment is not about me — it is about you, and oh, have I told you lately how much I adore your brain? Because I do.

Jimmy Eat World! Michael Penn! Oh, my heart. <333 (And, ahahaha, is that Flo Rida vid not the BEST. I swear, it can uppercut a bad day in the jaw like nothing else.)

And ugh, I am so sorry your new office mates have apparently taken it back to the playground. Just — ew, ew, ew. For serious, I am frowny-facing so hard from Kentucky, you can feel the sad in Texas.

I need more Dianna Wynne Jones in my life! People keep telling me this! And you are a fan, so it must be true.

California is so expensive, I cannot even. (My two older sisters, and some more extended family, are out in L.A. Oh my god, the ridic. It is epic. We cannot talk property values in Cali versus Kentucky without one or several of us having our own tiny aneurysms made of incredulity.)

Ahhhh, Bukowski. And that one. HEARTS IN MY EYES, M. HEARTS IN MY EYES. And I swear that's not even a pun on the title.

(Also! If you so choose! Hell yes, come at me bro!)

[joseishijin.livejournal.com]

OMG - if El Jay had eaten my response twice, my laptop would be in the tree outside my window right now. You are a better woman than I, LOL!

Hooray for slow patches at work! God bless the doctors and their inflated bank accounts that make summer vacations possible! ^_~

The fact that you love Michael Penn solidifies my belief that you are a long-lost sibling. *nods*

For serious, I am frowny-facing so hard from Kentucky, you can feel the sad in Texas.

For serious? This made me laugh my ASS off after a bad day. Indeed, there is no joy in San Antonio - mighty Mel hates her job.

YES, OMG Dianna Wynne Jones! All her stuff is fabulous, but Howl (IMHO) is the funniest character she has ever created...

Ah, Cali...if I ever win the lottery, I will put my frugal south-mid-west values in my pocket and LIVE LIKE P-DIDDY IF P-DIDDY ENJOYED RUSTIC BUNGALOWS BY THE OCEAN IN THE CARMEL AREA. Er, you know what I mean...

Bukowski, baby. 'Nuff said. *harts*


HELL YEAH, I WANT TO GIVE YOU QUESTIONS!

Here goes:

1. I think that the way you feel about Kentucky is the way I feel about Texas - a complicated love/hate mix of memories, friends, and the family ties that bind. One day Fate whisks you far away from your home state - what will you miss the most about Kentucky, other than loved ones? What is the one thing you won't miss at all?

2. You are stranded on a desert island with plenty of food and water, but little else. The gods take pity on you and allow you to pick one fictional character to keep you company. Who do you choose? Why?

3. Look around your room right now - your eyes fall on an item that brings back a wonderful memory. What is the item and what is the memory?

4. The worst thing about waking up from a great dream is the part where you wake up. What is the absolute best dream you have ever had?

5. I am a totally awesome thief and for your birthday, I will steal any work of art for you from any museum in the world. What painting/sculpture/etc. would you like? Why that one?