I have seriously been too busy to knock out a well prepared post during this trip, but here's some randomness...
i've been conflicted as to how much i'm actually accomplishing in cairo and where it will take me and if i really want to go there. after being home just a couple of weeks i want to just buy a house in church hill and try to balance keeping it real with a 9-5. part of me thinks that is giving up, another part thinks its growing up.
drew and i talked for a night about how when we were kids we thought we'd both be married by now, probably with kids. now neither of us see a good reason to make that mistake. my plan now is to just have fun until i'm into my thirties and meet a woman who was too focused on her career early on and at 35 she has decided she wants to settle down. i'd make an amazing househusband. the only flaw in that plan is that i can't iron -at all- but i fully expect science/technology to take care of that, or for her to be wealthy enough to do dry cleaning, i'll pick it up for her.
i'm going to buy a voice recorder today. i figure i have too many great ideas to let them all be forgotten because i'm too busy to write them down. for example, last night i dreamt of a trailer for the new bill and teds movie. the dream gave me enough to write a screenplay, but no tape recorder. also how funny would it be to listen to a tape recorder full of things like 'original cast...rufus hand of god...bill and ted deities...timespace rifts antagonist...shadowy character behind it all...maybe recycled footage of george carlin?'
right now i'm at my parents table with dave. we're drinking chocolate milk and daves sitting across from me watching 'welcome home rosco jenkins' and narrating the entire thing to me. occasionally he flips his computer around to show me what queen latifa is wearing.
speaking of dave and black comedies, the other day we were in macarthur mall trying to find ninja stars or shoes, and as we where going down the escalator a group of girls where going down the elevator. keep in mind these two things are about 40 yards apart and as i looked over they were frantically trying to get our attention. i nudged dave and they blew us a kiss? this seriously happened. then, the best part, is when dave caught the imaginary kiss and put it in his pocket.
i think that might have been the same night we decided to go to an all Filipino dive bar and sing dashboard confessional on midi karaoke. since that song didnt work dave sang 'since you've been gone' and i sang 'islands in the stream' with sarah carter. i love her voice, but it ended up being like that 'afternoon delight' scene in arrested development.
another good idea? peanut butter and jelly french fries.
party at my parents house-
If you're reading this and in va beach, come over to my parents house tonight. My aunt is up from georgia and my mom and her are making way too much food. My sister brought over the wii and a ton of games, and there's tons of free booze. Do yourself a favor and come over between 6 and 9.
Normally I don't post anything involving (mis) adventures with the opposite sex. Somehow it just seems...unrefined? Tacky? Personal? But i recently had a comment requesting otherwise, so...
I went over to Drew's apt last night, where we caught up, got blogged, and told jokes. Eventually Drew got hungry so we walked over to the restaurant/tequila bar closest to his place. One of the things i really enjoy about norfolk is the food scene. Since Peta has their headquarters here, there is a financial incentive to provide delicious veg fare. Sitting at one of the cocktail tables, I had a spicy steak chimichanga that was completely vegan and totally delicious. First off, I had no idea that a chimichanga was just a fried burrito. awesome. I also decided that this products marketing team has dropped the ball. how many more chimichangas would be sold if you just said 'deep fried burrito'? I also came up with the term "Texas Egg Roll" for our friends to the south, and the 'far' east.
After being there for about a while I noticed some 'talent' and made eye contact. Keep in mind that Drew has an amazing beard and every 5 minutes I'm falling into a laugh hole. Side note - one of the laugh holes started with me saying "lordy lordy look who's forty...Aint it nifty, look who's fifty...Aren't you sneaky, guess who's sixty."
Anyway, three girls walked up to our table, and one of them dropped some lame line like 'you guys just looked cool and interesting and we thought we'd just come over and say 'hi.' To which I responded, "well you guessed right. we are fun and interesting."
The woman doing most of the talking was the outgoing (read: drunk) 31 yr old lesbian. The other two were complete normals who would each be a 7-8, if you couldn't tell that they were from the eastern shore, or if you never looked at their eyes. One of them had the eyes of jim breuer and the other had one eye that was so crazy lazy that she could make eye contact with both drew and I at the same time. My other major issue was that they had come over to our table and offered nothing interesting in the way of conversation. The lesbian, on the other hand, was pretty funny and apparently worked at a tugboat captain? At one point she told drew that he had to arm wrestle her. Drew tried to bail but I encouraged the situation and, thankfully, drew won -although it was close for a while.
Eventually, the two girls with no game went to the bathroom and drew and I just left. We went back to drews, ate maple syrup and ginger snap gellato, and laughed about how funny that situation was.
I raced back from Harrisonburg in order to get to the annual Oregon Hill Christmas Caroling. I made it just in time to practice a sweet Daryl Hall and John Oates song. The entire caroling process took 4 solid hours and ended up at Ipanema for a Karaoke fundraiser for books on wheels. It started at Mamma Zu's with almost 30 people crowding the small Italian restaurant. The people paying 30 dollars for their entrees had to stand up so we could all fit inside, only to find out that we were singing Dust in the Wind and Footloose. The most notable moment was when we stopped a car, surrounded it, caroled at it, and then realized that the lady's car had just had her car broken into and was crying that snotty weird breathing kinda cry. I think Broken Wings would have been the most appropriate choice for that one.
Here's a video of us in 821 (note Tony Waste's solo at the end)-
I'm going to start from the most recent things and work my way back-
Yesterday Dave and I went to brunch with chris, carrie, bryan, tony, and eva at a place called pearlys. The food was great and pretty cheap, as was the company -zing-. Then we went back to tony and evas and had a bloody mary bar, pitchers of mimosas, and funny videos on the projector.
Later, Chris, Dave and I went to Black Sheep and had some amazing food. My one complaint was that the tea wasn't sweatened, but the glasses had a respectable heft to them, which provided an enjoyable and thirst quenching experience.
Afterwards, Dave and I met Ward and company at the Punks for Presents Christmisfits Benefits show. Basically it was ex-Wheelbite members doing a christmas themed misfits cover band for charity. A-mazing. Even the bartenders were donating their tips.
The lead singer was even nice enough to throw presents out to the audience. At one point he asked, "are there any Cutthroats in the audience?" (the leading bicycle club) and then he threw out some soap. hilarious. Unfortunately, the soap, sweat and beer made for a slippery combination and everyone started to fall all over the place.
At one point shelly took control of the pit, until she got 'tired' and decided to just lay down in the middle. Ward and I convinced her it would be better to just lay on the bar, so we picked her up and set her up there. Before the end of the set, she had gotten on my shoulders and I was walking around with her for the entire last song. The slippery floors made it difficult to balance, and an intoxicated shelly atop my frame made it almost impossible. Eventually she jumped off my shoulders and into the crowd.
The last I saw of shelly she was being ejected out of the bar full tilt. Her feet looked like they were consistently confused as to where the ground was, and her shoulders always seemed to be a solid distance ahead of the rest of her body. Dave and I went with ward and murty to Ipanema where ward and I prank called the radio station. Apparently, it was techno night or something so I asked if the current song was considered house or drum and bass (I dont know what the diffence is) and the dj said "neither, it's down-tempo-trip-hop". Ward then asked if it was a remix, or the original, and requested some 'up-tempo-trip-hop" as the current song was a bit of a 'downer'.
Sat 13th - DC with Dave and Chris
Sun 14th-Wed 17th - Richmond
Wed/Thurs - Harrisonburg
Friday - Richmond
Saturday/Sunday - Richmond or DC
Monday 22nd - Friday 26th- Va Beach/Norfolk
12/27-1/5 is completely unplanned and I need more options for the best new years ever. It's going to be tough to beat Great Wolfe Lodge last year, but i'd like to try.
My flight arrived an hour late and by the time I got through customs poor dave had been waiting for almost 2 hours. Fortunately, for me, he brought an assortment of treats and goodies for me. Granted, I didnt need a Drinkfour Loko at 5pm, after over 20 hours of flying, but it was nice to know it was there.
We then stopped at Mandolay, one of my favorite restaurants, for some delicious Burmese food. While waiting for the food we went to whole foods and grabbed fixins to make cookies, some key lime with graham cracker ice cream, organic milk (for the cookies), chips and salsa, and some kombucha.
When we got back i was more tired than I expected and passed out while dave made cookies. I woke up at an Alison Buckley trying to freak me out while I was asleep. If you've been flying for over 20 hours, you're in a different country and its somehow its only 9pm on the same day you left, and you've been asleep for 20 mins you're a really easy target. I had no idea what was going on.
Dave's cookies were amazing and i think i ate 32 whilst watching Pineapple Express. At 1230am I passed out hard, only to wake up at 7am.
Today, Dave and I are going to eat more delicious food, watch Transporter 3, grab a phone thing for me and then Chris will get here.
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Now playing: ACDC - You Shook Me All Night Long
via FoxyTunes
It's 1230am here. My plan was to sleep from 430pm-1230am and get a taxi at 2am for a 415am flight. So far the plan is not working out. I slept from 7-10pm and now i'm getting prepared for the flight. I'm pretty sure my suitcase is pushing 30lbs and its just full of gifts. i feel like tim allen in the santa clause.
I also figured out that i can't hang out in the netherlands on my 5hr layover because its 2 degrees there, i only have a thin sweater, and i dislike being cold more than i like just about anything.
It's 1240am and I know that my flight leaves in almost 4 hours and after that its just 18 hours of airports and airplanes. So for the next 22 hours I will be thinking of daves hot tub, taco bell, and seeing your beautiful face, shimmering with power.
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Now playing: Fall Out Boy - America's Suitehearts
via FoxyTunes
yeah that's right, i'm listening to the new fob. i'm just wondering if this is the album that will make people stop listening to them ironically. so far, i'm not impressed.
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Now playing: Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)
via FoxyTunes
I'll post more about the trip tomorrow, but i'm back at my desk at work. Tomorrow I start packing and doing last minute errands. i'm also going to try to go to bed at 4pm tomorrow so i'm well rested for my 4am flight and 5 hour layover in the netherlands. Most of my suitcase is already filled with dave's christmas gift, of which i'll post photos of next week, after i give it to him. so far no one that i've shown the gift to likes it, which is a good sign i think.
i'm freezing cold right now, so i just checked the weather...its 62 degrees. When I arrive in dc its going to be in the 30's/40's. i'm so not prepared for this.
mish kwoys halas (not good at all)
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Now playing: Bonnie "Prince" Billy - I've Seen It All
via FoxyTunes
Just so no one worries, i'll be in the desert for the next few days getting the 'ol mind right for my east coast holiday hangout tour 3000.
Jackson Bentley: What attracts you personally to the desert?
T.E. Lawrence: It's clean.
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Now playing: Damien Jurado - Desert
via FoxyTunes
If you ever find yourself considering joining the French Foreign Legion for 3 days, carefully weighing the pros and the cons -you have been too lax about self evaluation.
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Now playing: Seu Jorge - Don't
via FoxyTunes
Everytime i publish a new piece of my original 'artwork' it stretches it out. so click on the photo for proper image.
Things I'm looking forward to part 2
Veggie Burgers and Beers with Bros
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Now playing: Japanther - Challenge
via FoxyTunes
Everytime the song "Electric Feel" comes on the playlist I can't help but imagine dave w. dancing to this song. I looked to see if there was a video for the song and not only is there a video but most of the guys in the video dance like dave, just without the heart that dave brings. Also, if dave were to write a pop song the chorus would definitely have the lyrics 'Eww! Gurl...'
Watch it
From my moms,
ethan has a double birthday party today after school. i swear he's like a little rock star. one day, one of the little girls in his class yelled his name out her car window when she saw him in the parking lot. "Hey, Ethan Foster" !these kids are 4! one of the moms stopped me in the hall because she wanted to meet "ethan foster" her son talks about him all the time. she wondered why her son used ethan's last name? I explained that ethan introduces himself as though it's all one word.
I love love the Vampire Weekend album. I know its just indie/afro pop, but its soo good. it makes the palm trees in egypt really stand out and the more I listen to it the more excited i get about life.
I watched this hot steaming turd of a movie last night. There was a much better version made just before this movie with gerald butler as beowulf, it was way better. great expansive shots, decent acting, and they stayed close to the original text. This movie was not any of those things. I only wanted to watch it because John Malcovich and Crispin Glover are in it, but its difficult to get past that ridiculous animation effect. Also, beowulf in this movie was just a stupid frat guy and grendals mother looked like a photoshop project of mine involving angelina jolie's silly looking face.
To cleanse my mental palette I just youtubed Crispin Glover and watched about 6 different videos. Crispin hellion glover on david letterman is still the best, and his music videos are also pretty tight, but he gave a very intelligent interview on tom green. If you've ever wondered why he has an affinity for using actors with down syndrom, how corporate media influences culture, or his explanation of the david letterman interview click here.
You can also buy his 1989 album, 'The big problem does not equal the solution the solution equals let it be' at amazon. if nothing else, you should read the reviews. my favorite is when a guy calls crispin glover boring and not 'edgy', the 'bob hope of the new millennium'...
Happy December 1st,
The ten day forecast for Cairo has an average temperature of 80 degrees and sunny with a 30% of a cloud. What's the weather like where you are?
I think i'll go to the pool this weekend.
Smugly yours,
jimifoster
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Now playing: Lee "Scratch" Perry - Free Up The Weed
via FoxyTunes
