Mean People

I live in Iowa... the heartland... the place where nice people are supposed to thrive, right? No.

I don't know if it's in the water or what the deal is, but lately I've been running into mean people at a far greater frequency than I am used to. People cutting me off on the highway, I got flipped off the other day because some dude tried to cut ahead of me in line, people butting into my conversation rudely offering an opinion that I did NOT ask for... I mean really. Normally, people have a nicer disposition in the city I live in (don't get the wrong impression - there are 350,000 people here - I'm not in a small town).

Do you think I should blame the economy on this one? Or are people just starting to let down their polite flags and start exercising their right to be angry? If it's the former, welcome to my attitude island - I hate most people and am not ashamed to admit it. Its just that before, I would feel bad about being rude to a nice person - but since there seem to be a lack of those around here lately - it's GAME ON!

Andrew Bird

Andrew Bird was in my city last weekend, wow is he a great performer. If you have the chance to see him live - I highly recommend it.

In other news, I'm still irritated at the world, and this includes being irritated with myself. I'm a horrible blogger in 2009 apparently.

Perhaps I'll find a new voice this month?

A newfound love.

Somehow I came to realization that I'm a huge fan of modern folk music, I knew I liked what I liked, but I didn't know that it was called folk until recently (yes you can judge me for that).

So going off of the "Listeners of ___ also bought"sections in iTunes I stumbled upon 2 1/2 hours of new music that I downloaded last night (thank you iTunes gift card givers). I love it all... here are some of artists I downloaded.

Meiko
Rosi Golan
Ray La Montagne
Amos Lee
Angus and Julia Stone
Andrew Bird
Owen Brady
Lay Low
Brian Factor

Post Holiday Coma

So I was on vacation all last week, and it was phenomenal. I truly wish that I could get my salary for doing nothing. Government: work on that will ya? I so do not want to be at work today... so mentally I shall recap my week off.

Some great things that came out of my vacation:
- watching the first season of Californication
-- I love you David Duchovny
- getting some great books for xmas
-- Three Cups of Tea is next on my reading list
- re-watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy
-- it has turned into a tradition
- seeing my husbands cousin from Germany
-- he's a riot and makes my side hurt from laughing so hard

How was your time off... if you got any?

New Tunes.

I need some new music to get me through the winter months. Any new people you think i should hear?

I like everything except country and heavy metal, but mostly listen to things like Ben Folds, Death Cab for Cutie, Leona Lewis, Katy Perry, Regina Spektor, Missy Higgins...

Loud without the Hangover.

From the second I got to work today, it's been all i can do to drown the noise out to focus on anything. People around me just fail to stop talking at the same time, so there's always something happening around me, most of it though has nothing to do with me and therefore turns into noise - that annoys me. Unfortunately what comes from that is me having my iPod too loud, which then makes my ears hurt and produces a headache.

I think coating my cube in sound proof insulation would be to forward a "SHUT THE FUCK UP" statement, thoughts?

Patience? Where are you?

last week i had patience. i listened to people before declaring them idiots. i tried not to judge people on their outfits until they said something stupid. i let the guy at the 4 way stop go first even though i was totally there 1/2 a second before he was. I let some jerk get in front of me even though the left lane closed signs started 3 miles back and he was being an ass who thought he deserved to rush ahead and sneak in.

yeah, this week is not so much like that. i have judged everyone on their bad outfit choices this week: even though it's winter, you still should have the ability to put something on that is not stained sweat pants and a hideous christmas sweater with matching fake christmas light earrings. I paced my driving so that the guy wanting to get over couldn't get in behind me or ahead of me, and laughed maniacally in my car as he came to a complete stop before merging. i might have yelled "SUCK IT!" as well, but i can't be sure. no one has met me at a 4 way stop today... they can probably sense the vibes that i will not be giving anyone leeway this week. Oh and before i even said hi to anyone at work yesterday, someone came up to me with the dumbest fucking thing I've ever heard. in my head i said "fuck off wanker" but i really said "excuse me while i get some coffee" completely ignoring them. the day only got worse.

perhaps its this crappy time of year, perhaps its just a mood swing, i'm not sure. either way i do know that secretly being mean is gratifying.