Notes From The Mundane

So.

I've been 26 for a couple of days now, and I still haven't gotten the hang of it.  But I'm not too worried about it.  I've mentioned a couple of times that my sister is getting married in about a week, so my secret hope was that my life would re-enact Sixteen Candles, and everyone would forget my birthday.  Unfortunately, no one did, and I didn't get that magic moment with Jake Ryan.  I think I mainly wanted to meet John Cusack.  Everyone gave me cash in lieu of gifts- the one exception was a copy of the new David Sedaris book.  So that was all fine.  I used some of the money to pay for my ticket to the Rock The Bells festival in DC.  I bought new headphones, to replace the two pairs that broke over the last five days (one pair just gave out after months of abuse, and then I accidentally destroyed my back-up pair when I was taking a bag out of my car during a driving rainstorm- I was trying not to get too wet and didn't notice when I slammed them in the door.  I discovered them the next morning and had one of those moments where I vaguely feel like I've failed at life.  Because I was up so early, I went ahead to Target to buy a new pair.  Since I was flush with gifted cash, I felt like I should buy something else while I was there, which is an incredibly odd impulse when you look at it rationally.  If I had been thinking clearly, I would have bought the new Futurama DVD, but it was 8:15 in the morning, and that level of logic was inaccessible to me.  So I wound up staring at the CDs for sale.  I thought about buying the new Weezer album, but I couldn't bring myself to give up 16 dollars for something that I'm so sure will be a disappointment.  So I ended up buying the 25th anniversary re-release of Thriller, which was on sale.  In retrospect, I really can't understand why I did that.  I mean, it's a great album and all, but I'm not a Michael Jackson fan, and I can't imagine any other circumstance where the idea of buying the CD would have even occurred to me.  There are probably two or three valuable lessons to be learned here.  

The tracklist that I made for myself about my birthday goes as follows:

1. Pearl Jam- Corduroy (Live, from the Live on Two Legs disc)

2. Nirvana- Oh, Me (From Unplugged)

3. The Pogues- Medley: The Recruiting Sergeant/The Rocky Road To Dublin/The Galway Races

4.  The Rolling Stones- Torn & Frayed

5. U2- Vertigo (Live, from an EP I found on iTunes of U2 at the Brooklyn Bridge and only bought the one song)

6. Weezer- Perfect Situation (which is the one song off of the last album I actually liked)

7. Aesop Rock- Flashflood

8.  The Beatles- I'm Happy Just To Dance With You

9. Bob Dylan- Idiot Wind

10. Bruce Springsteen- Darkness On The Edge of Town (Live)

11. Buck 65- 1957

12. The Clash- The Guns of Brixton

13. The Coup- Busterismology

14. Neil Young- Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues (Live from the Bob Dylan 30th anniversary show)

15. The Stone Roses- Made of Stone

16. Mcenroe and Birdapres featuring John Smith- A Little Bitter

17. Radiohead- Anyone Can Play Guitar

I just finished reading the new Sedaris.  It's good, but I didn't like it nearly as much as the other ones.  I'm a little worried that he's begun to run out of past, so to speak, and is forced to write more essays about life as a middle-aged, mildly famous, neurotic gay man, which are inherently less funny than essays about being a twenty-year old hitchhiker or child who is neurotic even by the standards set by the rest of his family.