Drunken Owls and Other Delights

I have been SO exhausted lately, and I'm not sure if it's allergies and the change in the weather (SF is suddenly experiencing warmth and sun for the first time in ages) or that I've just been spreading myself far too thin lately at work. A bit of both, perhaps. I won't bother you with the details, just that I left early today as I was pretty much running on fumes. Thankfully I have tomorrow off so I will spend the day chilling. [I have my two bookkeeper opens Friday and Saturday, but those don't tire me out even though I wake up early...I'm too busy sitting at a computer processing things!] I have no other plans except heading over to PetSmart to pick up some litter and check out a replacement cat tree for the older one that's falling apart. Oh, that and continue doing a bit of writing work!

Meanwhile, Outside Lands is this weekend, so I've a feeling there will be all sorts of nonsense going on. The volume at the Day Job wasn't too bad last year, as it was mostly people buying stuff for home partying or pre-show get togethers, but we shall see. I'm more concerned about some idiot parking in front of my garage door (which we will gladly have towed at the owner's expense) blocking me in or out. The sound might be a bit louder I think, considering the performers that will be there, but we shall see. Thankfully they still stick to the 10pm shutdown, and that's right about the time we finally turn out the lights.

It is VERY RAINY here in San Francisco, which means that the SFFD is having a field day on their Twitter feed, reminding people to a) not touch downed wires, b) don't drive on flooded roads, and c) keep an eye out for that overgrown tree in the front of your yard that just may fall onto your roof later today. We'd originally planned to go see something at the De Young Museum this morning but all this rain changed our minds (and the tickets were free so no worries), and lo, a tree on Stow Lake (not all that far from said museum) decided to give up the ghost. 

So yeah, we're inside, where we're about to watch the latest version of Dune, I'm doing the laundry, and A is prepping food for tonight and later in the week. Thankfully our roof is not leaky, though we have seen a few windborne bits dropping through our bathroom skylights! We're a little nervous about that giant tree across the street -- you know, the one that's causing some of the overhead wires to shake and has been in desperate need of pruning for a good couple of years now -- and just waiting for it to topple over into the street and crush the car that someone so foolishly parked there.

My only real worry post-storm is how the weather will be at the end of next week, which happens to be Outside Lands. It looks as though things will be fine, but here's to hoping it doesn't end up being a Glastonbury washout instead, yeah?

Other than that, not much new to report...I'm currently doing a Read-What-I-Have-So-Far of Novel Projects A and B and it looks like they're in good condition as far as rough first drafts go. Last night I'd found a single sentence in Chapter 2 of Project B that, if I changed just four words, would tie in PERFECTLY with a few Very Important Plot Points later on, and so literally jumped out of bed to do so before I forgot. I don't do that too often! 

Okay, off to watch a VERY long but amazing-looking film! :)

I figured this would happen. Our two-week vacation to London and Paris was excellent and full of fun events (and meeting up with local friends!), and somehow we thought that capping off the vacation by going to Outside Lands would be just dandy. We're doing fine, but we're really starting to feel the effects of jetlag from the return flight and the effects of second-hand smoke (cigarette, vape, and pot) from the festival. We're contemplating skipping out on Day 3 due to exhaustion...there are many good bands playing, but we're both okay with not making it.

Besides, I got to see Duran Duran last night, and that's a band I've been wanting to see practically since Rio came out. And I get to see both Air and Radiohead tonight, two bands I've loved since their beginnings.

On the plus side, this gives us Sunday to catch up on sleep, clean out our work emails, and do a crapton of laundry that we haven't been able to start yet!


Normal life will start over once more come Monday. I'm hoping to get back into the groove of twice-weekly blog writing on both my sites, continue with the TBoL edit, and ease myself further towards the new writing-related projects I have on deck. Many good things coming soon!

Also trying to ease myself back into healthier habits once more, both physical and mental. Drink more tea and less soda. Log off social media more often. Get rid of more of the distraction habits. Get over to the YMCA more often. And focus a hell of a lot more on said writing plans.

Hope everyone's having a good weekend!

So emmalyon and I have been heading to Golden Gate Park for the Outside Lands festival (I've been posting a few pictures at my Wordpress site the last few days), and man am I exhausted! Given that I haven't gone to a rock show since 2004's Curiosa Festival, I'm definitely out of practice. Not that I'm complaining about "the kids on my lawn" (at least not at a serious level--it's fun to complain about hearing Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" on the PA system and state that most of the kids in the crowd weren't even born when it came out), nor am I complaining about the noise (I worked in a loud warehouse for 4.5 years, I'm used to it). I guess it's more that I don't have nearly as much stamina and patience for this kind of all-day thing as I used to.

But there's also the fact that I'm definitely a solitary music fan and a serious one at that, so I'm more accustomed to sitting in Spare Oom listening to my mp3s and streamed stations rather than in an enormous and rambunctious crowd. I'm also more about listening to the band and enjoying the music, and the inherent douchery of some of the crowd does get on my nerves. I certainly don't mind the dancing, the bouncing around and the screaming for more. But I get irritated by the moron nearby whose plan is mainly to get completely shitfaced and/or stoned. Don't get me wrong--I don't care if you want to alter your consciousness for the show, but I just don't get why. Why would you want to go see one of your favorite bands and spend the entire performance in an alcoholic and/or medicated haze, and are you going to even remember it when you come back down? [Of course, this is the basis of the time-honored joke, "if you remember being at Woodstock, you weren't there", but I digress.] Suffice it to say, I'm pretty sure I must have gotten a secondary high this weekend from all the toking going on around us. Maybe it's just me, but I get irritated when the crowd is paying more attention to their altered consciousness than the performance.

I also mentioned to Emm that, ten years or so ago, I would have stayed for the entire thing, regardless of how late it was, because I just did not want to miss my favorite bands. Last night I passed up staying until late to see Sigur Ros, one of my favorite newer bands, because they were going on late, it was getting colder, and I was dead tired. Added to the fact that Sigur Ros getting out the same time as Metallica was going to cause a clusterfuck of an exodus from the park that I wasn't in the mood for.

That's not to say I'm hating the experience, mind you. Douchery aside, I loved seeing Fitz and the Tantrums, Beck (who played three of my favorite tracks from Sea Change, much to my intense delight!), and getting my ass kicked by Foo Fighters. Seeing Animal Kingdom and The Be Good Tanyas up close was quite enjoyable. I was extremely impressed by how smoothly the staff and security are running the show, and despite the occasional slip-up and annoyance, I would definitely go again next year. We were even thinking about checking out the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival when it comes around as well. Despite the annoyances, it's been a hell of a fun weekend.