I don't think I've felt this down in a while. I think it's a combination of things going on, but fucking shit, I can't stand it. I can't even produce a coherent thought right now - my head just feels so full and heavy with... just fucking garbage. I couldn't pick out a string of words to piece together a sentence to save my life right now. Tried picking up a pen and paper to write something and I couldn't even get the words down on paper. It's like there's a jam in the gears running 'round upstairs.

This fucking time of the year. Sundown at 4:30. Dark by 5. Such a petty-sounding thing, but Jesus, it's depressing. Wake up, see the sun for forty minutes while I get ready for and then walk to work. Sit at a desk for 8 hours (on lucky days!) barely seeing anything other than my monitor and my co-workers. No window to speak of, save for the ones in the front which I see a handful of times a day. May as well not even exist.

I can't stand leaving work and having it be so dark, having it feel so late all of the time. I can't count how many times I've said to myself, "God, it's getting late!" only to look at my phone and find out that it's 7pm. And it's depressing. To feel tired and worn out and that your day is almost over... and then you realize that there's still so much more of it left. And somehow you feel guilty for feeling bad that there's so much day left. But there's no motivation to do anything when it feels like this. None at all.

I can't stand working two jobs anymore. I've done it for too long and it's really fucking starting to break me. It's bad enough leaving the Pennysaver at 5 and walking into darkness - a couple nights a week I just walk through that darkness into another 4 or 5 hours of work. It's really starting to drain me as much emotionally as it has been physically. Used to be that I'd just get tired by Wednesday and wouldn't want to do anything but sit around. Now I'm just fucking depressed as soon as I wake up on Monday.

I'm just so God damn tired. Tired of everything. Of long hours and dark afternoons and trying to stay happy and positive when everything is pulling me in the exact opposite direction.

I want to be happy and I want to feel good when I wake up in the morning.

I don't really see that happening anytime soon.

I just want to fucking quit everything.

Apartment at dusk: a grey Brooklyn sky, a train that I’m missing. A cheap travel mug that leaks from the side, damp coat and mittens.

If you don’t find a steady job now, if you don’t find a steady job now. Oh no. If you don’t find someone to love now, if you don’t find someone to love now. Oh no. You will die freezing cold and alone.

They’ve got full blown homes. They’re married with kids (and appliances.) I’m doing dishes. Alone in your car, the heat doesn’t work. Baby, we’re scramblin’.

If you don’t find a steady job now, if you don’t find a steady job now. Oh no. If you don’t find someone to love now, if you don’t find someone to love now. Oh no.

You’re alone and you’re wet in a hospital bed and your family and friends will inherit your debt as you breathe from machines. Yeah, I know it sounds mean but you’re probably gonna die alone.

If you don’t find a clock to punch now or find yourself a steady fuck now. Oh no. Your family and friends will inherit your debt and you’re probably gonna die alone. Yeah, your family and friends will inherit your debt and you’re probably gonna die alone.

Moving to Ohio.

Does it get easier as the days go by?
Can I re-adjust to my underwhelming life?
Two jobs I could do without
People who never try
In a town that doesn't care if I live or die

I'll never see my home in the same way again, it's a curse
And it keeps getting worse and worse and worse.

I thought we had community
I thought we had a heart
I swear I felt it once
I thought I felt it twice
But when it gets too hard, you just start giving up
Well, I'm not giving up - I'm moving on

It was raining when we came
It was raining when we left
It'll be raining in my heart until we meet again
I'm thinking of you, Barea
I'll dream of you tonight
And if I dream of you, Barea
Everything will be alright

I'm going to paint the town white this time
Or whatever color you paint something when you're leaving it behind

I'm moving on
With the help of my best friends and one more song

Lots of stuff has been going on. Most of it pretty exciting. This weekend was the Film Festival in Lake Placid. Got free passes because I'm a very important VIP (that's doubly important). Wound up seeing Adam Resurrected & Whatever Works on Friday night - the first one was bizarre and sort of hard to follow due to Jeff Goldblum's accent & the poor audio. Not sure if I liked it or not, I just know that it was strange. Whatever Works is the new Woody Allen film starring Larry David, and it was pretty fantastic. Basically like watching "Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Movie." Mostly predictable, but still very fun.

Saturday was a bunch of short films - the top of the lot being The Dying Western. It's set in the 60s and focuses on the life of a film extra, and I feel like if I tried to describe it any further, I'd wind up giving away some plot points. It was really good, though, and it was shot incredibly well.

Also saw Run For Your Life, a documentary about the New York City Marathon. The guy who started it, Fred Lebow, was a real character and the journey that the entire thing took was great to see. I never knew anything about the Marathon before, and this was definitely a nice intro to everything it is and what it came from.

After that was Trailerpark, a film adaptation of a book by Russell Banks. The film was produced by 70 or so students at an Ohio university. Awesome. It focuses on the life of the residents in a trailerpark. There's no huge storyline to get into - it's really just about following their lives and seeing their experiences. It was really fun and the kids who did it did an amazing job with the whole thing.

Aside from that, things have been busy lately. I registered myself as an official business in Clinton County, so I'm my own business now. Just in the world of web design at the time, though, as doing any sort of graphic design work for another company is against Pennysaver company policy (can't do competitive work for another company and all that jazz). It's kind of exciting. I did an overhaul on my portfolio site (www.coreymcollins.com) and completed a site for my first client (www.plattsburghsawatdee.com).

I was at Smooth Moves this morning and Erin introduced me to a woman who is starting a salon. We chatted, and I think she's going to get in contact with me to do her website, too. I want to try and do the site for the Koffee Kat at some point, as the address is on all of their cards, but it doesn't actually exist anymore.

We'll see.

Music is going well. Eric came back from England and we're trying to get back into the groove of being a five-piece again, finding our sound and getting some stuff together. Show on July 11th, and I think someone wants us to play on July 31, too - my birthday! Should be a sweet weekend.

Haven't been sleeping well lately. Get tired and go to bed early, but then I lay down and feel 100% awake in a few minutes. Then I'm up until 2 or 3 before I get tired again. I can deal with one night of 5-hour sleep a week, but when it's almost every night, I'm not having a fun time. Crashed hard and early Friday and Saturday night and slept eight or nine hours each night. Still felt tired when I woke up, though.

Ordered a new lens for my camera, at the recommendation of Erin's father. Starting to watch Star Trek, at the recommendation of me after seeing the new movie. The previews looked God awful, but the actual movie was outstanding. Bought some books on graphic design and fonts, some novels by Charles Jackson and a George McGovern biography. Abram is starting up a D&D game for us soon. Starting reading Captain America comics. I think I'm more of a nerd now than I ever have been before.

Wearing a suit makes me feel like a real business man, and I think it makes people treat me like one. Got the first set of checks I've ever had. They've got the American flag all over them. Wearing grown-up shoes. Trimming my face, cutting my hair. Watching my finances. Making my own money. Working for me. Being my own man.

Am I an adult?

This how we do.

So, hello there. It's been a pretty spiffy week or two or however long it's been since I've written something here. There was a most excellent show at the Co-Op last Friday - Marco Polio, Chris Ostuni, Adrian Aardvark & Madden Touchdown Pass. Justin and I joined Chris as Adrian Aardvark and The American Debt, and I played the Hell out of the tambourine. Now I've got bruises on my thigh, but they make me smile, even when I roll onto them in bed and I wince in pain. I had a lot of fun just playing the tambourine with them, and everyone else was having a blast. Chris finished the set with a song accompanied by Joe Cross on drums, and it was fucking unreal. It was like watching a real-life rockstar flipping out and capturing everyone's attention. Captured mine.

Of course, everyone else was incredible, too. Matt (Marco Polio) and Chris were both awesome - I had seen Matt last summer at 56, but not Chris. Two distinct styles of music, both powerful and emotional. Madden Touchdown Pass was a lot of fun, and they are sounding super, super tight. I got to nail a parrot piñata with a bat during one of their songs. The damn thing flew (it is... well... was a parrot, after all) right off of the string holding it to the ceiling and waffled this poor kid in the face. I mean, it just completely lambasted the dude. I felt bad at first, but he took it in stride and seemed okay, so all was good. I finished smashing it open and its candy and party favors showered the people. What a mess! But fun fun fun.

Friday night was spent with the Syracuse dudes and gigantic calzones. It was awesome to get to know all of them - genuine and friendly guys who I hope to see more of in the future. Chris has this way of listening to you talk that makes everything you're saying seem like the most important thing anyone has ever said.

Saturday was spent blowing money at the thrift stores - I bought an organ for $25 and a gigantic American flag that spans the length of one of our living room walls ($22). We found out that Music & More smells like a shit-filled litterbox because there is a real-life cat shitting in a litterbox behind a curtain in the backroom. If they're going for a Wizard of Oz thing, I think they're doing it wrong.

Meredith, Veronica and Elise came up from Potsdam for the day, so we met up with them in the afternoon and lazed around for a while before everyone decided to make some music. We set up the mic and went to town for an hour or so, everyone playing songs and using all of Chris' many instruments for additional noise. This happened again later that night until around 2AM, including Syracuse Chris reading an incredible poem that left everyone in silence for a moment or two.

Sunday was a nothing doing day. I got up, saw the dudes off to Potsdam and then sat around for a little while. I wanted to go along for the trip and take the bus back home, but it only runs once on Sundays at around 12:45. Buh-buh-bummer.

I did some cleaning and some napping and I think I've figured out how to setup the screen printing table, as soon as I can get the microwave onto our big, metal shelf in the kitchen. Just need some plexiglass or something to put underneath it so the feet don't fall in between the rungs.

I wish I had a singing voice.

Work Monday was alright - pretty steady at the Pennysaver, then busy at the restaurant. Not lose-your-mind busy, but busy enough to where four hours seemed like one.

Today was okay - I didn't have any allergy medicine, but since I didn't take any yesterday and felt fine, I thought I'd be aces. Wrong-o! I felt like Hell all day, and it got progressively worse as it went on. Started to have more of a hand in putting the actual Pennysaver together today, and was "officially" handed the reigns to the Mailer Express. woop woop.

Didn't want to go to work tonight, but I did. Wound up leaving early due to feeling like I was going to pass out/throw up.

Every part of my face burns, including my eyes. I think it's my soul telling my body that I should always live my life the way I lived my weekend - surrounded by musicians and artists who are friends becoming family instead of living in the daily grind.

Maybe one day.

Saw this newspaper with Justin on the way to see Husbands AKA in Vermont last week...


"Swine flu fears lead to mass pig laughter."

And this apparently has Derby the Horse very, very upset.

Time to... I dunno... drink more tea or something. Breakfast tomorrow will be my new "Whoops, ran out of medicine!" routine - Tylenol for my allergies and breakfast sandwiches for my belly. Maybe I'll buy a coffee, too, if I'm feeling rambunctious.

Just came home from a meeting with my people at Sawatdee, the Thai restaurant downtown. I'm a dishwasher there, and one of the salesmen from the Pennysaver let them know that I make websites and stuff like that on the side. He was really helpful in getting me the job there, and now he's getting me even more work. He's a sweet dude.

Anyway, we had our first official meeting about it today - about price, cost, etc. They really have nothing, so it's all from scratch. They're really great people, and I'm pretty excited to work on something for them. They even gave me free Thai iced tea and a meal! "Here you go, Corey - and she put love in there for you, too."

What do I have to complain about, really? Two really sweet jobs, and more work coming in to do in my free time. Lots of great friends and great music and a beautiful summer to look forward to. Gonna be heading out to Peru today with Justin to check out a couple of used PA's, so we'll see how that goes.

Time for lunch! And creating an estimate for my awesome Thai friends.

So, last night. Last night was incredible.

Outsmarting Simon is a band that I've been in love with for the past three or four years. Justin was really into them when I first started hanging out with him, and he always used to make Livejournal posts about how much he loved Outsmarting Simon and how Outsmarting Simon was so great. And, like the idiot I am, assumed that Justin was some major a-hole who had a friend named Simon who was really gullible, allowing Justin to outsmart him all of the time.

Lots of space on this giant noggin for the dunce cap to sit.

When we all moved in together, I finally heard them... and holy crap. Amazing. And now I don't go a day without listening to at least one song by them at some point in my day. They are essential in my rotation along with Latterman, Small Brown Bike and Hot Water Music.

Outsmarting Simon used to play in Plattsburgh a lot, but I was never really into the music scene when I was in college. I was consumed with radio and production work, never really venturing to any shows anywhere ever. Total bummer.

So, by the time I got into them, they weren't playing shows anymore, least of all playing shows in Plattsburgh. Double total bummer.

Justin wound up being friends with PJ Bond (one of the dudes in the band), and he always talked about how much he loved Plattsburgh and would love to come back up sometime. And we all quietly talked about how those no-good something-somethings needed to get back together and play a show in our town.

Well, that hasn't happened... yet. But something even more awesome happened last night.

Justin put together a small acoustic show of himself, Chris (Adrian Aardvark) and PJ to play here in Plattsburgh. For whatever reason, other locations fell through and our apartment wound up being the primo location for the get-together.

I was nervous. Almost didn't even take the night off at the restaurant. Was afraid of noise complaints or some sort of police involvement. And felt really strange about having PJ Bond playing music in my living room. Here's a guy whose band I had, for lack of a better term, idolized for the past four years of my life. Just amazing music that really hit me, that I could really feel.

And he was going to be in MY house in MY living room playing music.

I didn't shed any of the cop-laden nervousness all night, but I did lose the nerves about meeting PJ. He, and his friend Scotty, both felt like old friends when we first met. There wasn't really any tense or awkward baloney, just folks chatting about whatever. And that was the theme of the night.

Everyone played incredible sets. PJ's stuff is incredible, and I silently freaked out when he decided to cover "Drive By Monologue" by Outsmarting Simon - one of my absolute favorite songs, period. I never thought I'd hear that song live, and here it was happening in my living room (under a portrait of David Bowie, Andre The Giant, Chris and myself).

After people cleared out, it dwindled down to Justin, Abram, Chris, Leticia, PJ and me. We all just hung around talking about nonsense and music and blah blah blah. Whatever people talk about.

Eventually we decided to go get some beers (well, Coca Cola and cupcakes for me) and hang out down by the lake. Met up with Joe Cross and Dana, and we just hung out and talked and goofed around late, late, late into the night.

The whole thing couldn't have been more perfect if it had been written in Hollywood. Good friends, good music, good times.

I think we've all agreed that last night was the official start of summer in Plattsburgh. For us, anyway. And this summer is never ending.

So, I'm posting this to my Livejournal AND my Blog. And I guess I'll just keep doing that. I suggested to Justin the other day that we start blogs on Blogger so we can follow the music blogs more closely... so, now I suppose that's happening. That jerk got to it first, though, so now I just look like a copycat.

There could be some exciting things happening for me in the very near future, but they're top-secret. Like, actually top-secret. I've never had that before. It's time to take some risks.

Was working last night and one of the cooks, Charlie, came out of the walk-in with a piece of cake on a plate. Looked at me and said, "Try some cake?" Hell yeah, I'll try some cake. I love that restaurant.

Tonight was a pain, though. Got a big table and a bunch of smaller ones around quarter after eight, so I wasn't able to start washing down all of the pots and pans and whatnot until nine thirty or so. Ah well. Got me a box full of chicken cashew nut in the fridge.

Thought of a new food product that I'm going to try and hammer out this week/this weekend, and then figure out how to sell it to a big company. I think I've honestly got a good shot at this thing. Did some looking around online for a little bit and didn't see anything that matches up to what I have in mind, so I may have a winner on my hands (and in YOUR bellies! HAH!).

Chris is in Yo, Adrian! now as our bassist - third bassist in under three years. At least they're not dying... just moving away or... well... nevermind. Anyway, it's awesome. We've written two new songs so far, one that'll probably be 99% finished at practice tomorrow, and one that I still need to work on. Plus, there's another one that he and Justin came up with last night. We're getting heavy and dreadful, and it's going to rule.

Eric - I will get recordings of the songs and send them to you as soon as I can.

Don't really want to sleep right now. It's kinda late, I guess, but I never want to go to bed early on Tuesdays. I guess it's because I know that I don't have a twelve-hour day ahead of me like I do on Monday and Tuesday. I can get through an eight hour day on less sleep than I need for those two bastard days of the week. Maybe I'll find a snack or something.

Anyway. That's all for now!

So, what has it been? About a hundred years since one of these?

Things have been alright. Went from good to great to lousy to shit and now I think they're balancing out again. Maybe. Who knows. At least it's warmish out.

Ian moved back to Potsdam, so Chris is playing bass in Yo, Adrian! now. We had our first practice last weekend and it was super positive. A lot better than things had been for the past few months. Hopefully the trend continues, and hopefully we'll be able to practice more than once a week.

Chris and I moved into a new place on the first of the month, and, thus far, it is pretty sweet. It's very spacious and copacetic as far as hangouts go. We had a big party on the first Saturday here and the cops showed up. Not because of us, though - they came to shut up the party that was apparently happening directly below us. When they heard all of our hullabaloo, though, they had to come up and tell us to shut our yappers, too.

Wound up staying up til around 4 or 5 in the morning that night with Chris, Abram and Leticia (and Justin passed out on the couch), which I hadn't done in a really long time. It was excellent and a lot of fun.

The next day was Wrestlemania, which was a blast. We comfortably fit twelve people into the living room to watch it, and could definitely fit more. So much room! Everyone had a great time (I think), and the highlight of the show was the Undertaker/Shawn Michaels match, which everyone wound up getting into - even the non-wrestling geeks like Travis and Jen and the like.

It was downhill from there, but still a fun night. Leticia made incredible cupcakes that we all gorged ourselves on.

The rest of the week has been pretty basic. Worked Monday & Tuesday, so I was a sleepy mess by Wednesday. Mustered up the will to see Adventureland with Kim, Erin and Chelsea after a solid nap. It was a good movie, but nothing incredible. Good, though. I'd watch it again for less than nine bucks. The kid in it is basically Michael Cera for when Michael Cera is busy and/or you can't afford him.

Bowling last night with Chris, Jay-O, Trevor and a whole group of rascals I had never met before. It took ten of us three hours to bowl two games. We're pretty sure the bowling pros limping around behind the cash register hate us now. But it was a lot of fun, and we talked about starting an informal bowling league. Get a bunch of our friends and put four or five teams together - each person tosses in twenty bucks to ward off any shaky commitments and to be awarded to the winning team at the end of the... season?

Anyway, if anyone is interested in a bi-weekly bowling league, let me know. So far, it seems like me, Chris, Trevor and Jay-O are down, and probably a bunch of the dudes from last night.

Just been really sleepy lately, but not wanting to sit around and do nothing. I have lots of friends who I always want to see and always feel like I need to be doing something. Maybe it's living in the hustle and bustle of downtown again, but whatever it is, it's kind of cool and shitty at the same time... because there aren't always people around.

Speaking of which, I wonder why my friends have phones when they never answer them. I'll contemplate it more while I sit around alone in my red towel.

It went well,
You didn't have to do it all by yourself.
Some friends came over and helped,
a hand truck, a friend with a van,
and you're moving out again.
Remembering when you first came,
it's crazy these streets look the same,
they looked different when they were strange.
And it's always weird to erase
every personal trace
from a place you called home for a while
and see all that you own in a pile.
A place that had become a friend,
to return it to how it had been,
to be friends with whomever moves in.

And you stick around
after all the boxes are down
the fridge is empty- just one ice tray,
and you swept and mopped more today
than the entire time that you stayed.
It's a shame you now have to leave,
the place is actually nice when it's clean.
It wasn't hard mopping the floor,
why didn't you ever do that before?
Now the van is down on the corner,
and you've done everything that you're gonna.
There's some pennies and dust on that shelf,
but the landlord can clean it herself,
and you're not sure, but you're going to claim
the blinds were busted like that when you came.

Man, so existential in that room,
so existential with that broom.
Cause the room looks the same
except there's no life left,
and you start thinking about death.
When you die, will it be the same?
No more thoughts decorating your brain?
An empty space for the world to reclaim?
You're on the verge of thinking something deep,
then you hear the van give the beep,
then you take one last look around to make sure,
then you take one last walk out the door,
and you'll never again see the angle
of the street you saw from that window.
You take the key out of your pocket,
you close the front door and you lock it,
drop the key back through the slot,
sure hope there's nothing you forgot.

I still have to get my security deposit back. Don't let me forget.

"Oh." Jonas was silent for a minute. "Oh, I see what you mean. It wouldn't matter for a newchild's toy. But later it does matter, doesn't it? We don't dare to let people make choices of their own."

"Not safe?" The Giver suggested.

"Definitely not safe," Jonas said with certainty. "What if they were allowed to choose their own mate? And chose wrong?"

"Or what if," he went on, almost laughing at the absurdity, "they chose their own jobs?"

"Frightening, isn't it?" The Giver said.

Jonas chuckled. "Very frightening. I can't even imagine it. We really have to protect people from wrong choices."

"It's safer."

"Yes," Jonas agreed. "Much safer."

Fuck.

Yo, Adrian! CD Release Show! from Corey Collins on Vimeo.

On the way home tonight, a big 'ole AMERICAN STYLE SUV or something stopped in front of me. The driver rolls down his passenger side window, and we have this conversation:

Dude: Hey, man... can you help me?
Me: What are you looking for?
Dude: ...... I'm lookin' for a place to party.
Me: Uhhh... you probably want to go the other way - toward the college. There's a bunch of stuff over there.
Dude: ... Nah, man... that's not the kind of party I'm lookin' for.
Me: Uhh... I don't know! Not a bad place to start!

At this point, I'm not really sure what he means. I just sort of want to get the conversation over with. I know you can get pretty fucked up at the frats and other places around campus, so he'd probably have found that. But was he looking for a hooker? Did he want to "party" with me? I followed up with that statement because, A) I'm no hooker and B) When I woke up this morning, I told myself that the one phrase I didn't want to hear today was, "I'd like to know how much you charge for a really greasy Rusty Trombone."

So that was that.

The other night I woke up to a drop of water falling into my eyeball. I did not sleep outside. No, I was in my bed. And the water fell from my ceiling. Why? Because my new humidifier turned my room into a rain forest, amassed two huge plains of moistness on my ceiling with dozens of water droplets just waiting to dive bomb my relatively dry bedroom.

I turned my humidifier down last night. No more rain.

No more rain.

Yo, Adrian! Studio Update! With guest appearances by Don Cheadle, Fat Mike, Sam the Snowman and Elvis Presley.

Didn't want to get out of bed today. Was bummin' on Monday because I just had a four day weekend, preceded by two days of work, further preceded by nine days off. Pennysaver was alright. Sort of boring and slow, but it wasn't too too bad. Was really dreading work that night, just because I got so lethargic and sleepy at job numero uno. The restaurant was also very slow and boring, but I did get good food. Twice! And my co-workers are funny and cute.

Wound up in a very good mood by the end of the night. Walking home with it cool outside and Jason Anderson singing through my headphones further put me in a good mood. Today was far better than it had any right to be.

Now I'm gonna watch wrestling or It's Always Sunny or something and eat my delicious Thai dinner, including a tiger roll - I'm nervous. I'm unsure of the actual tiger content of the roll.

Wish me luck.

Well, I woke up sick. I'm gonna have to miss the concert. Sorry, Isaac. My car was sick, too. Its transmission had the flu. So I took it to the mechanic up the block and locked myself out of the apartment. Man. And it's raining. And it's Monday. I don't wanna be late. But the train was coming down the second I ran down the stairs. I got to work in plenty of time. I was fine. I even had time to buy a juice! And the kids were awesome. Man, I love these kids. They were singing and dancing all around me. The mechanic called me up and said the car was fixed. The car was ready and, what's more, he said, "Jason - the way you're talking to me right now, it makes me want to give you a hug. You're the type of customer I want." Whoa-oh, how 'bout that! Whoa-oh, it all turned around! Whoa-oh, and I'm gonna see the bee movie later. Whoa-oh, this Monday's not turning out so bad after all. Whoa, oh, take that, Garfield! Things are looking up!

So, I'm coming home tomorrow. I'll get in around 5:45, and Justin has been gracious enough to pick me up from the beautiful Plattsburgh airport. It's going to be 48 on Sunday! Finally, normal weather that I can handle. Another day of mid-eighties would kill me, I think.

When I get back, I've got to confirm the January 30 show at the Co-Op. I love those guys, but they are so flaky when it comes to getting things together. We've still got more than enough time to promote it, though, so there's no pressure on it like the Lemuria show.

Speaking of which, Justin let me know that Lemuria is playing in Florida tomorrow night. I scoped out the shows going on while I was down here and nothing exciting happened (at least, nothing that I could find). I suppose nobody wants to play shows during Christmas.

Christmas was pretty swell. Got a bunch of movies (Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, There Will Be Blood, No Country For Old Men, Be Kind Rewind, Superbad, the Mr. Perfect documentary, The Dark Knight and AN ORIGINAL COPY OF WRESTLEMANIA I ON VHS), Watchmen, some clothes, Four Minute Mile on blue vinyl (plus a poster and a bonus +44 single of Cliff Diver for free), a new pair of green shoes and a Best Buy gift card from my brother.

Not too shabby. Never did get my eye exam. I guess time caught up with us. It was supposed to be another gift, but my mother is going to send me some money next week so I can get it done in Plattsburgh.

I want to do something with friends on Saturday night, and I know Chris gets back the same day... so let's do something fucking awesome, then have an also fucking awesome breakfast at Campus Corner the next morning.

I think "Potemkin City Limits" is one of my favorite albums.

I got a new phone. That's cool. No more "Zoolander phone" for me. No more, "My God, that is SUCH a tiny phone!" whenever I make a phone call around a new person. I mean, I suppose you could still say those things, but they'd be wrong. This one is big and black and has softer buttons, which means more typographical errors when texting. Woo! I'm most excited that I was able to finagle a way to get all of my old contacts onto my new phone.

When I get back, it's time to seriously buckle down and update my portfolio as much as I can. I'm going to start applying to jobs in Portland (Oregon, not Maine), Philadelphia and the Carolinas. If someone in one of those places wants to take me, I'm out of Plattsburgh in May. A group of us seem to want to move to Portland, so that'd be cool. Wrestling school is in Philadephia, which is an avenue I've yet to travel down. The Carolinas are a curve ball, but they've always been a place I've thought of settling - not too far south and not too far north.

We'll see what happens.

I saw "Yes Man" today with Jim Carrey. I mean... I didn't go to the theater with him, he's in the movie. My brother and I went to see the new Bond film, so we bought our tickets for 12:10. Ticket ripper told us that it was in theater 3. Went in, and there were a bunch of previews for new Pixar movies (which are, apparently, all offered in 3D). We felt confused. And then the feature started. "The Tale of Desperaux."

What?

"The Tale of Desperaux."

We left the theater and started walking around to see if the guy told us the wrong theater. He did not. We then noted, on our tickets, that we had purchased tickets for the 12:10 AM show. Not PM.

We went to customer service and told them that we are idiots, explaining the mistake. She told us that she could give us a refund, or we could find another movie starting soon that we'd like to see. We looked through them, and she then presented us with two free passes in the event that we wanted to leave and come back later. And then we decided to see "Yes Man." Which means we paid for the right movie at the wrong time, saw the entirely wrong movie and got free passes to come back and see any movie.

We are idiots.

It was a good movie, though. So much better than I thought it would be, and while a couple of parts were too cheesy or silly for my tastes, it was good overall. Funny and everything! Plus, whoever made the movie must really love Eels, because they had about six songs featured in the soundtrack. That made it even better.

Plus, there was a behind-the-scenes look at and a sweet trailer for Watchmen. Neato.

Anywho. Time to... sit around until I get tired and then go to bed. Usual fare for the week.

See some of you tomorrow!