i am So confident.  there's this lady who owns a restaurant in a nearby town.  my mom has been eating her food since the eighties, and mom and i have been eating at her place occasionally for about ten years.  she moved from a side street to MainStreet, and now she's being discovered by people.  so her business has tripled while her seats have only doubled, and she needs a whole lot of help.  so my mom told me.  so i engineered lunch last tuesday at said bistro, and gave the owner my resume and a short letter.  after she had basically hired me on the spot, my mom and her friend proceeded to talk me up to a humiliating extent.  god.  i felt like a teenager, so embarassed by my mother.  love her to bits tho.

my first day was today.  the owner thought i was a quick worker and she was also glad to see i was tidy.  these things i know because she told me so.  the other thing is that i didn't ask what the wage was until after i'd worked today.  she told me, "well, i'll pay YOU..."  (price of my soul left blank because it's embarrassing to you city folks what we get paid here in the land of low-cost living.)  so i think she hadn't made her mind up what to pay me yet, and i do think she liked me an awful lot.  i feel good about this.

god, and do i need the extra money for next fall.  especially since so much of mine seems to be going to beer and...umm...other stuff.  but i'm a lot more cautious than i was a year ago, don't worry!

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the music i got with my borders gift card from last christmas:  two smiths greatest hits discs to replace the one i've loved and carried everywhere to its sad demise; TMBG "the spine" and the newest EP; the polyphonic spree's "together we're heavy."

lately i really like driving around and looking at people out enjoying life.  i like to drive down sixth street, with cute boys at the skate park just across the street from a beautiful park with people grilling and playing frisbee.  i like seeing people outside painting a new sign for their shop, or walking their dogs, or hanging out of their car windows at a stoplight to flirt.  signs of life.  giving me hope.  i will just watch for now.  i'm nearly as lazy this summer as i was last summer.   but now is a time for resting.  saving money.  saving energy.

lately i have been working a lot.  it's going well--most of the girls there have decided they like me, so i'm usually having fun and laughing.  there's one horrendous bitch that i would like to write about but i have no desire to skewer her so publicly.  i save that desire for mocking her in the kitchen on her days off.

clint's birthday cookout was nice.  drank a few beers and watched the boys eat and we talked about art and gardening and music et al.  such a nice, stimulating time, compared to my 17/18 year old party pals i've been hanging out with about once a week.  erin is great but hard to talk to, and the other one is...well....difficult.  high maintenance type.  and, let's face it, i don't really need to be getting that drunk, so i'm not sure why i go over there.  but it's fun to get out, and if i keep my distance a little things are usually pretty enjoyable.

not much else to talk about at the moment.

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tim: no, i haven't been keeping up with homestarrunner, unfortunately.  but fortunatelier, clint showed me the video for "experimental film" when i went to his birthday cookout.

jessica: i will definitely check out the new cake album.  you know what i was thinking about the other night?  that party we went to the night after graduation down at the milk cartons, and how we went to the playground, and earlier i had cut your hair, and we found liquor in the hallway, and we stayed in farr even though we weren't supposed to be there.

i think that right now i'm in a chrysallis. a dormant stage. i really shouldn't be doing too much but getting ready for the fall. i don't have energy for much else, i think. i suppose this fall i'm just going to explode all over the place. i hope i am. i miss being more active in my life...

so, i kissed boy-from-work. i think that's probably the end of that, though. a one-time deal, fourth of july, just like last summer with andy. i don't have time for it anyway, and i miss frank so much but he's always gone on business. talked to him last week and now i don't even know where he is.

my garden is okay. i need to help paint the house but it's probably going to rain again. i just read less than zero, which probably isn't a book i need to be reading. i'm also working on the handmaid's tale. depressing. i need new music badly. i still have a $25 gift card for borders left over from christmas....but if i get another one from grandma for my birthday.....hmmm. music could be purchased. hey! friends, send me some recommendations. i have a list running. i still love all the stuff i was listening to in college and in the UK, but i need some sonic revitalization.