anywhere is….

So… the new Britney Spears album leaked, apparently, because I’ve been able to listen to it. Non-stop. For the past few days. And it is SO GOOD. Seriously. I’m not joking. I remember years ago, being obsessed with the song Toxic. This time around, it’s Radar. And Break The Ice. And Ooh Ooh Baby. Piece Of Me is pretty good, too. The songs just bounce around in my head and I love it because they’re so great!

Anyway, even though she herself is having a rough time of it, her music is still fun.

Years ago, me and my BFF Charla used to have what was known as the three-song rule. If we liked three songs from any album, then the album was worth buying. That was back when singles were HUGE, but not cheap. At $3.49 a single, three of those came close to equaling the price of a new album. I always bought the singles anyway because they usually had some sort of remix or bonus song on them. When I can, I still hunt down singles and imports for that very purpose.

There have been a few times I’ve broken the three-song rule. It may have been based on artist loyalty. There are some albums I’ll get no matter what, just because of who sings them. Along those lines were New Kids on the Block, Paula Abdul, etc, back in the day. Now, with me being more and more frugal, I can’t go out and buy albums like I used to, but I tend to still stick to that rule. If I’m going to drop money on an album, I’d better like at least three of the songs.

Although, I heard one measure of Sarah McLachlan’s Afterglow album and had to have it right away. One measure. I knew from one measure of one song that I’d love that album. And I do love that album.

My musical taste is varied. I listen to such a variety of stuff that it’s impossible for me to choose any one favorite type of music. It’s also hard for me to pinpoint any favorite artist because I get fixated, then I change and get fixated on someone else. Like, right now, I am into this new Britney stuff, and I love Rent, both the Broadway and the movie soundtracks, and I keep digging out The Crüxshadows, especially Deception.

These are just a few of the songs that will always remind me of 2007:

Glamorous – Fergie
Breakin’ Dishes – Rihanna
Forca – Nelly (I realize it’s old but it’s relatively new to me)
all the Britney songs I listed above
Way I Are – Timbaland

I’ll make a list later.

I realized that I CANNOT listen to Rent while I’m trying to work. It’s way too distracting. Most of them time, I have no problem listening to music with words in it while I am working. I know some of the other editors say they read the words they’re listening to instead of the words on the page. I’d never had the problem before, until I tried to work on Language Support stuff and kept getting distracted and listening to the story of Rent instead of concentrating on the pages. So yes, if I’m doing the Language Support work, then no Rent. But if I’m doing Word Sort, which is mindless checking, then Rent all the way baby!

I recently got Miss Saigon out of the library and for some reason, I can listen to THAT while I am working on Language Support. Curious, that.

I finished reading a bunch of books this week. One of them is called Enchantress, and it’s part 3 of the Sisters of Isis series. I never cared much for fantasy, outside of Harry Potter, in the recent years, and it took some coaxing to get me to start reading Harry Potter. This year, I decided to broaden my horizons, and it started with the Leven Thumps books. So, I’ve been picking up fantasies here and there to see what I could see. The most memorable ones I’ve read this year was Wicked Lovely, my beloved Leven Thumps books, and of course, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

So, the author of Enchantress is a best-selling author and she’s got tons of other series out. I find that I spend a lot of time getting so frustrated at the girls in these Sisters of Isis books. I am trying to have patience with the characters, but they’re so clumsy and awkward! I mean, I try to empathize. I suppose if I one day found out I was a Descendant and had to fight, oh, I don’t know, EVIL from destroying all of humankind, and that I had all these powers and my supposed “mentor” wasn’t helping me at all, I’d be a bit out of sorts, too. I GET THAT. But it seems like they kind of stumble into these huge messes of ancient evil and curses, and then they somehow pop themselves out. It’s hard for me to buy some of the scenes. In the first book they ended up basically in hell, but they were like “like, oh my God, like, is this hell?” and then they somehow managed to pop themselves out without too much trouble. Or they’re in Ancient Egypt–they’ve actually TIME TRAVELED because they have some stuff to take care of to SAVE HUMANITY, and the one girl is like “I hope we get back before the party ends.” HUH????? Are teenagers really that self-absorbed, that they’re in a battle for THEIR souls as well as you know, the WORLD’S, that they’re going to be like “I need to get back before the party ends”???? I mean, YOU’RE the one who went there in the first place to save the world… by your own choice….I dunno, I keep having hard time with the books. So now, by this time, I’m reading because I’m too vested in the book and it’s lunchtime and I’m alone and I don’t have anything else to read. Then, the author throws in this really sweet ancient Egyptology or an awesome battle scene and then I’m like “Okay, I HAVE to read the next one.” In Enchantress, she had this one meathead of a guy named Brian say something that I still can’t get out of my head. “Sweet damn.” I mean, is that a great use of the words “sweet” and “damn” or what? I loved it and laughed for ten minutes after. I still laugh when I think about it. I wish I’D thought of that. I mean, “Sweet damn.” I can totally hear a teenage guy doing it.

I might have to start saying it. 🙂

I am not sure if I’ll bother to pick up #4, though. We’ll see.

Got my car serviced today, finally. I got the long-needed transmission flush, an oil change, fluids topped off, and the air in my tires inflated. So now, I will feel better about driving longer distances. Lately, I’ve been keeping it under 20 miles. Mostly I just commute to work, which is an 11-mile commute each way. It’s been FANTASTIC for my fuel budget, let me tell you. I’ve been filling up every other week. When I lived in Pataskala, I had to get gas twice a week. The notes on the page say that there was metallic residue in the drip pan from the transmission. That makes me kind of nervous. Next month will be the radiator flush thing. Who knows the last time I got one of those. I also need to do is figure out now to fix my passenger side mirror, as it’s completely shattered and hanging off the mirror-holder thing. I’m thinking it’s going to be a while before I get that fixed, though. I don’t anticipate that being cheap AT ALL.

I’ve introduced Aidan to Tom & Jerry, and he thinks it’s the best thing ever. Target had Tom & Jerry DVDs for $5.50. I got him one last week and one this week, with a gift card that Rosa (meimeigui) had sent me. And… get this. My DVD player died yesterday. I had the thing for about oh, say, eight months or so. It won’t play DVDs anymore. It says “WRONG DISC” and won’t load. So, thanks to this gift card, I was able to get a new one. A BRAND NAME one, instead of a generic one. The one that broke is gfm or something like that. This new one is Philips. Not expensive but it already seems nicer. And I’ll bet THIS ONE will play High School Musical and The Proud Family movie.

Anyway, I know that people used to go on about Tom & Jerry, but OH MY GOD. They really are incredibly and almost horrifically violent. But it’s funny as I don’t know what, and Aidan laughs his little head off at it. Anytime Tom screams, and that’s a LOT, believe me, we both fall out in giggles. It’s great. Tomorrow, we’re gonna watch Tom & Jerry, he’s gonna wear his new pajamas, and we’re going to bake cookies!

I’m tired, but my body is bouncing. It’s like I’m restless and tired. My back’s been aching, and I know it’s been because I haven’t been sitting up straight. I slouch like eight bitches on a bitch boat when I am at work, and when I am on the computer. I need to stop that, and I also need a massage. A good, hard back rub. But that’s been relegated to the “luxury” pile and well, I don’t have time for luxuries at the moment, not those kind.

Tomorrow is Friday. Sweet damn. This past week went kind of quickly. I’ve got costume parties to attend, but Aidan’ll be wearing the costume. He’s Spiderman this year. I will post pictures.

My costume is in Chicago and reserved for other occasions.

On that note, I’m outtie. Byeee.