When you have a day like I have on Wednesday, it's a good thing Thursday is the next. I woke up at 8:20, which was fairly early, but I lounged around watching Sportscenter and checking email for a little while. Have you ever woken up after a long day the day before and had your legs feel like lead? That's what I felt like this morning.
I got a few things done around the house before lunch time, which included looking up what I needed to do to pay our car taxes. Our tags expired this month, so I needed to get that done sooner rather than later. Today I had told Robbie I would eat with him, so I left around 12:30 to be able to meet him across town at 1. I ended up being a few minutes late because I had to turn around to get the car titles that I forgot, and then I missed a turn going to the restaurant. We eat at this cool little place called "Snapshots." It's on Rutherford really close to downtown. I would say the food is only decent, but the atmosphere is really nice for social lunches.
It was good to see Robbie. I knew him pretty well in high school, and then he went to school in California. He has been back for a bit, and we recently reconnected at that concert I went to at The Channel. He tells me stories about what the west coast is like and I wish that I lived there. Seriously, from what I hear I really think I would fit in so much better out west. It just seems more artsy and free spirited. I am guessing I will always be on the east coast, but who knows? We talk about more important things also, which is nice because I don't have too many people to talk about important things with these days.
I told him about the new Jack's Mannequin album and then played him a song before he went back to work. I am really loving the CD. For some reason the lyrics that Andrew McMahon writes really resonate with me. Did you know that he had acute Leukemia not too long ago? A few months before his first Jack's Mannequin album he was diagnosed and had to fight that whole cancer battle. It seems like alot of his songs on the new album came out of that period of his life. I enjoy the lyrics and melodies the most, but the production is pretty good too. Like I said, they made some pretty bold choices in not processing his voice. There are definitely pitchy spots and spots where he doesn't sound great. I appreciate the artistic choice though, and I really like how it works out altogether. My favorite song is definitely one called "Hammers and Strings."
The new Anberlin CD is kind of a disappointment for me. I really tried to have a good attitude about the new producer, but I really think that Aaron Sprinkle played a huge role in some of the magic that was Anberlin for me. This new CD still has several elements that I love about Anberlin. Stephen Christian still writes some great lyrics and some really catchy melodies. I still love how they play together as a band and how creative alot of their parts are...but now for the bad. My biggest complaint is that there just isn't as much continuity. I don't feel like the album flows really well. The sound and feel changes alot over the course of the entire thing. It isn't as bad as Lovedrug's second album was, but "Cities" was amazing in it's continuity, so that really disappoints me about this album. From a production side, it just doesn't sound as intense as Anberlin's older albums. The guitars sound really good, and even the drums too at some points, but somehow it often lacks the in your face energy that I love about Anberlin. They re-did "Feel Good Drag" for this album, and I actually compared it side by side with the version off of "Never Take Friendship Personal," and I just don't like the sound as much, especially with the gritty bass in that song. The vocals I don't think are as great either sound wise. Another thing dealing with production is that everything seems dumbed down a little and a little more pop-ish. One thing I loved about Anberlin was the creativity of the drum parts, the complexities of the vocals, and just how everything worked together. It seems like they just made everything more straight forward on this album which was disappointing for me.
There are some songs I really like on the CD, and it really isn't that bad. It's just that Anberlin is one of my favorites, and they disappointed me a little with this one. We will see where they go from here.
I digress. After lunch I went to the County Auditor and payed our car taxes. They give you a receipt that you have to take to a local DMV, so I did that on the way home as well. They gave me the new license plates at the DMV. I am not really sure I like them as much as the old ones...man I am being negative today.
After that I headed home for extreme schoolwork afternoon. I am behind in Statistics, and I have a ton of tests and projects coming up in the next two weeks. I figured I could spend all afternoon getting things done. I got home and tried to connect to Campus Cruiser to get started...nothing. I tried to connect to my iGoogle...nothing. My schoolwork afternoon was promptly cancelled because my internet was down...awesome, thanks again Charter.
The only thing I could really do without internet was make notecards for Micro. I wasn't really planning on doing that today, but I didn't want to just sit around, so I ended up doing that while I watched the NLDS on TBS.
Kristi came home around 6 and we went to my parents' house for dinner. Originally we were going to go out with them, but my dad needed to do some painting in a room they are renovating before the construction crew puts up the molding. We just picked up Little Caesar's instead. We took Lucy, but Molly wasn't there because she was at Camp Aldebol. This is what we call where the dogs go when we go on vacation. The family that keeps them is the Aldebols. My parents are going to the beach this weekend, so they already took Molly over there. Lucy was really disappointed Molly didn't come greet her and ran around the house for a while trying to figure out where she was. I felt bad for Lucy because she seemed bored the rest of the time.
We came home in time for the VP debate. Actually it was for The Office and Gray's Anatomy, but alas they were both cancelled due to the debate. I watched it for a while, but was getting really frustrated. Palin wasn't answering any questions, and alot of it was just the classic "He said, She said." That's kind of funny that that phrase is gender correct this year. Eventually I just watched football instead. As we all know, football is generally not frustrating unless Clemson is playing. It was a good game, and I was still able to flip back and forth to get a feel for the debate.
Tomorrow I have to work during the day, and then there is a staff outing tomorrow night which involves bowling. I love bowling, so I am fairly excited about it. There is a ton of staff, I wonder how many lanes we will take up. Joe won't be there because his sister's rehearsal dinner is tomorrow night. Too bad I won't get to see his backwards technique...
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