You Got It (The Right Stuff)

Ok people. Settle down. Here it is. The big announcement.

NKOTB is back!

They're not really new. Nor are they kids. But no matter. They are actually back together.

I was obsessed with them. OBSESSED. I first loved Jordan. But then the rat tail was really getting to me so I switched to Joey. Joey was my man. I swear I would sit there and take his age and subtract my age and think to myself, "Well, when I'm 20, he will be 28. That's not bad!" This was when I was 9 and thought that 20 was a perfect age for me to meet the love of my life and get married. ha ha indeed. May work for some people, and props to them truly, but not for me.

And merchandise? I had everything New Kids. The dolls (casual wear and concert wear complete with stage!), sleeping bag, pillows, trading cards, fake autographed glossys, key chain, buttons, oh my. My friends and I would bring in our newest New Kid item and oooh and ahhh over it. I remember Julie's favorite was Jon, Gina's was Donny, Michelle's was Jordan. She became upset when I abandoned Team Jordan for Team Joey but I believe she too eventually saw the error of her ways and joined with me.

They were also my first concert. And second. Yes, I saw them twice! Age 8 and age 9. My poor sweater bound uncle held me on his shoulders the whole concert while I was swaying to the music, screaming, and acting embarrassingly ridiculous. He was sweating buckets and he had back and shoulder pain for days that he didn't tell me about until I was much older and he could give me a hard time about it. At that concert, he was the age I am now. He had to take on the "father role" at 21 when my parents split up and he didn't have to do that. He saw countless dance recitals, choir concerts, plays. He even dressed up as Big Bird for my 2nd birthday in the middle of a heat wave in November. And of course, went through the hell of seeing New Kids surrounded by thousands of screaming pre-adolescents with me on his shoulders...twice. He deserves a medal. A giant medal adorned with jewels and gold. Something very tacky and loud that gets my statement of love and admiration across correctly.

So anyway, back to NKOTB, at the age of 9 1/2, I was over them. Basically, it wasn't popular to like them anymore so they were dropped.

Then I went through a long phase of listening to movie soundtracks.

Cat Power!

When I was a kid, I loved the Garfield comic. I would look through any newspaper lying around in order to read the strip. Every year I would get a Garfield desk calendar, even though I didn't have a desk, just so I could have a new strip everyday.

Recently, I came across a website that publishes a Garfield comic everyday....but with Garfield removed! How?? you may ask. How is this possible?? How will it make sense?? The comic strip is called Garfield! What followed was one of the longest laughs I have ever experienced. Take Garfield away, and you have one crazy ass, manic depressive Jon. Here are some examples:

Click here for the site.




Enjoy.

No Cars Go

So much to write about! Last week was a pretty intense week. What with temping, planning a closing night party, trying to go to spring training for my softball team, and my car getting stolen. Oh that's right. My car got stolen!! From my locked garage at my apartment! Here's the recap:

I get home last Tuesday from spring training around 8. Then D and I load up my car with a few things to take to his parents house, including his drum set and three bins full of electronics. Since we were both off the next day, we thought we would go ahead and take care of it so we could sleep in and drive up in the afternoon. So we do just that. We sleep in. We take our time getting ready. Leisurely walk down to the garage to find that there is no car in my spot. The first thing that ran through my head was, "Ok, which one of us had the car last and where did we park it?" because I have done that before. Then I noticed the trail of glass on the right side of the parking space.

We run upstairs, cursing and panicking the whole way. We get inside the apartment and I immediately call the police. They show up over 2 hours later. Ugg. During that time, I'm on the phone with my insurance company almost constantly while getting the occasional call from a member of my family. My mom quietly freaking out, my uncle staying cool. Our family friend who has worked at my family's business since I was born getting on the phone and telling me that I should have a drink.

After the cop leaves, my insurance company arranges for me to have a rental car. I get in a cab to go to the rental car company and, as I'm en route, my phone rings. It is a DC detective asking if I knew I had low jack on my car. For those of you who don't know, low jack is like a GPS device. In other words, they were tracking my car! Very high tech, James Bond shit going on. And an hour later, they call me back telling me they recovered my car and made an arrest. Then they asked me if the drum set belonged to me. D about jumped out of his skin he was so excited. So while he was doing his show, I went down to the precinct to retrieve all of my belongings from the car. This included D's drum set, two of his bins, and my CD's. The only thing missing was my iPod and one of D's bins that had a GameCube in it. There were also some additions to my car. Stolen merchandise. Several XXX-Large t-shirts with loud print on the front, a carry-on bag, and a Dora the Explorer hat. Score!

As of now, I'm still in the rental car. The guy will go to trial and I will have to go to give my statement, which I am very much looking forward to just to see this guy. They did an estimate of the damage, which was just the window. Now my insurance company gets it repaired and I can have my car, Maximus, back very soon. I miss him.

The moral of the story: it apparently doesn't matter if your car is in a locked garage. And low jack is awesome. Get it if you can. Or maybe The Club. The Club is not a bad idea.