Too busy playing tour guide to write. Back to regular schedule soon.

Shipwrecks and Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band

Let me preface by saying I don’t like people dying on a sinking ship. (Who does? Except maybe James Cameron. He’d have a lot less money if the Titanic never sank.) With that said, I love a good (olde timey) shipwreck story. There was a while when I thought I might go into marine geology with the hopes I could work with marine archeologists on a shipwrecks.  Sort of Indiana Jones-y. But a girl. And on a boat. 

Sort of like this. (Even those this actually Paleontologist Barbie, not Marine Geologist Barbie)

It’s the mystery that really gets me. How did it sink? Is it really <insert famous sea captain/pirate> ship? Is there gold?  What happened?? You can’t write these stories. Well, you can, there are lots of shipwreck mysteries out there (I’m reading one right now), but they aren’t as good as the real thing. (Unless, of course, the boat clearly hit a rock, there wasn’t any treasure, and everyone made it safely to shore.  Then the fiction might be better.)

I think part of the reason shipwrecks are so intriguing is because they are so far removed from my life. . I’ve never sailed off into the wild blue yonder not knowing I’ll come back.  I’ve been on my fair share of boats, but I’ve never had to watch for cannon fire or wonder if the boat was going to be commandeered at some point on the trip

Hot jam of the week is Nikorette by Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band. I'm not totally sure why I like this song. Is it the simple rhyme scheme? The rollicking rhythm? Maybe. Maybe something else. I was never a big fan of Bright Eyes (What Conor is most famous for) - a little too emo even for my emo phase in high school. But I'm a big fan of CO and the MVB because it's more "Let's have a beer" kind of music, rather than the sound track to your black and pink Myspace page.

Game Shows and Best Coast

I spent my formative years in Illinois. And Illinois in the summer is hot. And humid. I mean, seriously hot and humid, which means you do two things during the summer:
1) Go to the water park

No one does water parks like the Midwest. This is an actual picture of my local neighborhood pool.

2) Stay inside in the air conditioning.

On days I wasn't floating around the lazy river at Splash Country, my sister and I were watching game shows. No, watching isn't really a strong enough word. We were practicing for our shot at the game show title. It started at 9:00am with Price is Right. Sue Bee Honey? $2.19, you idiot! During the showcase we would each total up the prizes in our heads then compare to see who was closest. We were good.  Then we moved on to reruns of $10,000 or $25,000 or $100,000 Pyramid (whichever happened to be on). This was were the practice really started. We'd mute the TV then one of us would sit with our back to the TV and the other would give clues. We'd try to beat the people on the show. We usually did.

An egg! Your knuckles! A joke! Skulls of idiots who make terrible guesses!

When we moved to California, we discover that Pat Sayjak was one of the investors for my parents' summer camp. That meant Alissa couldn't go on Wheel of Fortune. Which was really a shame, because she's super good. Like 1-letter-on-the-board good. On the upside, my parents now have an autographed photo of Pat and Vanna in there house. In college I went to a taping of the Price is Right. It was everything I hoped for an more. Bob Barker is hysterical off camera, Barker's Beauties' dresses are just as awesome in person, and the set is just as colorful as you'd expect. Unfortunately, I didn't get to "Come on down!" but that was probably good for CBS because I would have cleaned up. And I didn't really need a dining room set.

This week's hot jam is Boyfriend by Best Coast. If I had a nickel for every time I've said, "That guy should be my boyfriend" (seriously or otherwise) I would be swimming in money like Scrooge McDuck.

I've mostly recently said it in reference to NASA's new golden boy, Bobak Ferdowsi and the boy I see riding a fat tire bike around town and The Lonely Man and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Maybe if I sent them all the video, they would get the hint?

Or this comic from A Softer World?

Countdowns and Carrie Rodriguez and Ben Kyle

I'm tempted to just post the video for Final Countdown, but I won't. You're welcome.

I like to get excited about things. (Who doesn't, right?) Sometimes I think the anticipation is better than the event. And that's why I countdown to things. Here are some things I've been counting down to.

1) The Olympics.

Tom Daley is 18 and I definitely don't care or feel like a creep. Take that, World!

I LOVE the Olympics. I like to watch the weird events like archery and badminton (speaking of badminton, did you see 4 teams were disqualified for throwing their matches??) but I'm also super obsessed with swimming, gymnastics, and diving (diving for obvious reasons. See above.) Thanks to my parents DirecTV service I can watch all 3500+ hours live.

2) BFF Alaska Adventures!

My BFF Steven gets here in 19 days and we are going on ALL KINDS of adventures. He's my favorite human being.

3) Speaking of Adventures...

Brandino and Jim forever!

These two crazy kids are getting married in 24 days and they are letting me perform the wedding ceremony. For real.

4) Labor Day Family Time

There have been a lot of milestones in my family this summer, so we are celebrating them all at once. You know, killing 15 birds with one stone. My family is nothing if not efficient.

5) Vacation!

Flying cuts 73 hours off my travel time

Since I've become a "grown up" (using the term loosely, of course) I haven't taken any vacations that I've a) paid for on my own and b) were not related to a holiday or family function. I'll be taking my first one ever in 87 days, thanks to some airline miles, a job that pays real money, and my upcoming PFD check.

This week's hot jam was going to be something else, but I heard Fire Alarm by Carrie Rodriguez and Ben Kyle on the radio this morning and became totally obsessed. (I've listened to 5 times already today.) A little bit bluegrass, a little bit pop and I super love it. Greater-Jackson, WY readers, Carrie is going to be in Victor, ID on Thursday, August 7th. You should probably go.