if there’s one thing that makes me sick, it’s when people try to hide behind politics

Goddam. Can a weekend not go by where I find myself at Target? It's so depressing. Even more depressing is that I get entranced when I am in there and can never just go in for what I need. I really needed a floor lamp for my living/dining area (aka the East Wing) of my apartment becuse all my overhead lights decided to burn out within the last week. So, unless I wanted to live like Laura Ingalls Wilder going to sleep when the sun goes down (minus the banging Almanzo part) I needed some light. Of course, I also pick me up a 7 dollar copy of Little Women. Shit, and it gets me every time. Especially when Beth dies. Fuck.

So, my parents were here this weekend, and we spent a nice afternoon in West Hartford. And then they dropped the bomb: they are selling their house on Long Island and moving to Florida permanently. My Dad tried to play it off that the big news was that my mom was pregnant. Anyway, this is big news that hasn't hit me yet. This means I will no longer have a home base on New York. I'm happy for them, they sold the house for 3 times as much as they bought it for 10 years ago. As soon as I heard the number, I practically jumped up and down and declared them rich. Then they pulled me back down to the adult worls by explaining this little concept called having more than one mortgage to pay off. Whatever.

So, it has really made me jumpstart my thinking about my next steps. I moved to CT because I wanted to be around the northeast, but one of the main reason was to be in driving distance of my parents. Not that I need to jump back into my mother's womb, but so I could have a stress-free time going to visit them. Anyway, with them in the south, a plane ride away, they might as well be across the world (any plane ride to me is going to be hell, so any distance will be the same). Lucky me, I have no family and am not attached to anything in the Northeast (did I mention that was lucky? Uh….) I can really get out and move to a whole new city. I have been quite spoiled being only in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic. I don't know what it is like to see a conferderate flag close up or to see more than 5 Bush supporters at once. So to talk the talk, I need to be able to live in other parts of the country to get some persepctive. And change. We are not talking the deep south either. I'd probbly burned at the stake if I moved there. I am looking for quasi-southern cities that are cultural centers, liberal pockets with a good music scene and a somewhat young population. Of course, this all depends on jobs that are available, but that's a minor detail right now. My frontrunners right now are:
Austin, TX
Madison, WI
Ann Arbor, MI
Chapel Hill, NC
What do you guys think? Anyone have any other ideas of cities that would be good fits for me?

My plan is move in summer 2007. I am committed to at least 2 more years at my current job. Unless something awesome comes up. I am very opposed to making a lateral move. There is just so many more years I can do icebreakers with an undergrad RA staff.

The idea of reinventing myself in a new city is very intriguing. Don't ask me what I would reinvent myself as. An archaelogist? A British school marm? Don't know. Whenever I've moved I've made a half-assed attempt to reinvent myself, but it never works. I think the only time I was successful was when I moved from college to DC, I think.

Ew, the shitty thing is now that not only to I have to pack up my mammoth of an apartment here to move to another apartment across campus in August, I also have to help my parents get rid of/sort through my old crap they have at their house. I'm such a pack rat. I have bags of close there that I SWEAR I will one day wear again. Never mind they are all a size 6, and resemble some kind of floral babydoll dress from 1997, I always refuse to throw them out. And like hell my 65 Barbies will go in the trash. Also, I have boxes of books from my tween years. God help whatever son/daughter/niece/nephew/other I have, because as soon as they start reading, I will shove a Babysitter's Club book in their hand, like it or not. I think I am getting half of all the furniture in their house in NY, which is pretty sweet sowhen I finally have to rent my own place again I will have some things to fill it. I may have to arm wrestle my brother for the large tv.

Let's talk about how Radar Magazine is the absolute shit. It is the exact pop culture magazine I have been looking for. Plus, in the recent issue, there is a whiole expose on the WDW College Program aka subversive colonization. I don't really know what that means, but it sounded bad ass.

Among about a thousand other cds I've acquired this week, I discovered a lovely emo-esque band called The Academy Is. Certainly, they are no Velvet Underground, but they do have some catchy, well crafted songs that are a cut above the other shitty emo/punk/Simple Plan crap. Then I check their website for some tour dates and godalmighty, they look like this:

Welcome to every indie/emo cliche known. Fauxhawk? Check. Dirty, shaggy, yet styled for an hour hair? Check? Sullen expressions? Check. Vintage ski jacket? Check. Check Taylors? Check. Grandpa's blazer? Check. Guy with an ironic afro? Check. Band picture taken on a roof? Check. Although that was originally done by none other than the No Andrews Band.

Oh, this is fun. Now that those nasty Jews are out, the right wing is taking back Disney.:
Southern Baptists Return to Disneyland
The removal of Michael Eisner as CEO of the Walt Disney Co., the departure of Miramax founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein, and the decision of the company to release several movies based on Christian-themed books have resulted in a decision by the Southern Baptist Church to end its 8-year boycott of the company. the decision was not without opposition, especially by Southern Baptists who oppose the company's policies toward homosexuals, such as health benefits to the same-sex partners of employees and allowing "gay days" at its theme parks.

Even Rosie O'Donnell is sick of Tom Cruise. p.s. does she write her entire blog in the form of a poem? wtf?

You may be hearing a lot about some band called Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Don't believe the hype. They kind of suck. They are like this year's Arcade Fire.

Here's what I am reading now:

Rock Snob's Dictionary
Pop culture: an introductory text
Secimen Days

White Privilege: Essential Readings, my start to contributing to Brandon's project on Uprooting racism. Check it out here:
http://bodhichitta.typepad.com/uprooting_racism/