new digs!

if paul and i extol the virtues of our apartment any longer, someone would think we were being paid to do so.
the big move day was 3.15.01, where we both woke up at 5:30, to drop the dogs off at the new apartment (so they wouldn’t drive the movers nuts whilst loading and unloading) and to drop paul off at work. That’s right, you heard me correctly. That mother fucker had a very important meeting the day that we moved and I ended up directing traffic for it all day. Which, ironically, wasn’t as bad as I make it out to be. With my dominate nature and how much of a control freak I am, paul would have just been in the way. Regardless, the fact he had to work is enough for me to extract punishment from him. 🙂 Just kidding. Really. I am just kidding. Maybe.
The move really went off without a hitch, really. We had packed most of the house the previous days and basically all I had to pack was the kitchen and the bathroom. The movers carted all 30+ boxes (half of them books…) down three flights and were not looking happy to realise that they had to cart all 30+ boxes back up four flights (including what scant furniture we have). The movers were at the old place at 9:55am and were gone from the new place at 3:00pm. By the time paul got home, I had started unpacking most of our stuff (leaving the computer/office room and the kitchen for him) and I was lying on one of the futons watching teevee trying to keep my eyes open.
here is the floor plan to our apartment. nearly 1400sq feet and in person, the apartment is HUGE. You might be wondering why we needed a three bedroom? Good question — typical couples get one maybe two bedrooms. However, since paul’s sister was planning on living with us before we got this apartment, we had to find one that handled large dogs (she has a 50lb boxer) — and this place was perfect. Like Penderbrook, I did all the leasing information over the phone before I even saw the place — we were getting desperate looking for apartments that handled large animals and had the space we needed. When paul’s sister “changed her mind” (ie: flaked on us), we took the apartment any ways, with the option of having a guest bedroom/sitting room for me.
I took Wednesday till today off to deal with the move and get the dogs in order. Every night paul and I have been taking baths together in the “garden tubs” and we are both amazed our fat asses can fit into one 😉 I’ve been walking around on the ubersoft carpet in this daze that I can’t believe this is *my* apartment and *I* live here. With the furniture (or what little we have) spread out, I can see several buying trips to Ikea coming up in the near future. The bedroom is “technically” smaller than the one at Penderbrook, however, once we got the bed and dresser moved in, we noticed there is enough room for another dresser against one of the walls if we choose, a teevee stand and a chair/love seat. We are figuring Penderbrook shortchanged the rooms somehow because with the same bed, dresser, teevee stand we have now, we could not have fit the additional pieces of furniture in there AND have room left over. The walk-in closet is large enough to fit a twin size bed in there and the bathrooms are wonderful. The kitchen is large enough that we can have both the dishwasher door and the oven door pulled down without hitting each other. The dogs have plenty of space to roam and play and everything is just wonderful all around.
Don’t I sound like a goddamn advertisement for this company?
But it’s true (it’s true!).
There have been a few problems since we moved in here, nothing that couldn’t be fixed and for the most part, OakWood has been very gracious about getting some of the items attended to. I found out from one of the maintenance guys that our apartment was never on the “daily clean list” the day before we moved in — which is funny since they knew we were moving in a month ahead of time. But they are fixing everything in a more timely manner and there is people on staff 24/7. Hell, I’ve been so motivated by the move and just starting to realise how a new apartment makes one feel better, I’ve been thinking about starting to work out again. But as always, I let the thought keep wandering.
Sometime between Thursday and Friday, I pulled a muscle in my back and i was calling (in pain) to our chiropractor to have him put me back in shape. As Friday wore on, the pain got worse where I couldn’t even get in/out of my car without difficulty. When I got home from running errands Friday afternoon, paul attempted to “put me in my place” which resulted in me screaming like a little girly-man cos it hurt so goddamn bad. I couldn’t move to my right or bend to my left without screaming bloody murder. But, on Saturday morning when I woke up, I realized the pain was gone with no trace or after shocks, if you will. It was, very odd.
One of the great things about moving (even though there are just a few it seems) is how much you discover about yourself and how much crap you find that you forgot you had. I found my partial collection to strangers in paradise, the comic for the non-comic reader, that i had forgotten I had. I have not read any of the current books since issue 13 (and they are now up to issue 38 — shit) and sitting in the “sitting room” floor reading the comics made me realise how much I’ve missed Katchoo and Francine. I started digging around and found that amazon.com carries all the trade paperbacks for them up to the latest one and I’m thinking about subscribing to have SIP delivered directly to my door. If you haven’t read SIP, I would highly recommend you do so. NOW I SAY, NOW GO BUY IT. ahem.
I’ve also discovered I’m a bigger fan of Anne Rice novels than I care to admit. I have almost all of her work in paperback and hardcover and that alone frightens me. But she amuses me and I like being amused.
Speaking of books, TLC BookClub seems to have fallen to the wayside — it hasn’t helped that my own mind is on other matters.
I’ve also got to stop buying these books written by brits — akin to “Bridget Jones’ Diary”. I keep purchasing these books (without intention really) that tend to be all based in London and written from the female perspective and it’s always about these whiny bitches who have issues. or something. The horrid part is that since I’ve been rating my books on amazon.com, they’ve been suggesting other related authors. ARGH! It’s madness i tell you, madness.
I have more to say, but it’s 1am in the morning, I have to work tomorrow and geekbox is down so who knows when you’ll be getting this.
Go buy me something. My wish list is getting too goddamn long .
x0x0x0x
Lisa
 

i sold my soul for a playstation

i don’t know how it started, but lately i’ve been going on and on about playstation (psx) and tekken. this spurned a debate about gaming in Userfriendly, when one of the channel regulars said that for “favors” i could have his souped up psx plus 20 games.
Since these “favors” weren’t detailed, i bugged the person when i got privately messaged by someone else that said they would send me a “new” playstation (minus games) for FREE! as long as I didn’t prostitute myself out. He wanted me to keep my self-respect in check, he stated.
While the second person has met me and can testify to my hotness, i was a bit amused (and tempted) to take up on his offer. I told him that thanks for the kind offer, but I could not take such a gift under those kind of circumstances, but that i appreciated the offer regardless.
this brought a fury of um, response from someone close to my heart.
later on, the conversation dated back to older gaming stations and i started going on about the Atari 7800.
Remember those things? They must have come out in way early 80s (i’m thinking 82-83) and basically were emulations of the arcade style games (graphics and all).
I loved my 7800. I kept it up until we moved to grand rapids in 1985 and beyond as we had played frogger, q*bert, pacman like mother fuckers. I once topped pac man at either over a million or 10 million. I forget which, but I remember taking a picture of the screen when I did so (and I still have that pic!).
Another channel regular, Gruuk, came up with a link to ebay that showed that there were 7800s FOR SALE! WOAH!
The current price on one was out of my league (around 150 bucks) but another one (and this one HAD q*bert) was in my price range.
I, of course, bidded on a piece of my childhood.
This spurned off other seeking. I bidded on a rare Afghan Whigs vinyl as well as the ultra-rare JudyBats cd “When Souther Bells,” which I have been looking for forever.
Add this up to the cd’s i bought of Ned’s Atomic Dustbin God Fodder, Bauhaus 1979-1983 Vol 1 and Swing The Heartache: BBC Sessions. I also purchased Sister of Mercy’s Vision Thing.
And I coaxed (cajoled? begged? pleaded? batted my eyelashes?) Paul to spring a whopping 6 bucks on a TI 99/4A. This was my FIRST computer ever. I learned how to program BASIC on it.
God, I got wet just thinking about it. An Atari 7800 and a TI-99/4A!!!
woohoo!
god is an alcove
i completely and totally understand that i’m regressing into my childhood.
First it was the obsession over old computer equipment and it’s also been music.
For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been slowly hunting down music from my youth.
Bands like Charlatans UK, The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays just to name a few bands (and including the ones listed above that I bought cd’s for). I’ve been jamming to Spinner recently (and getting other people hooked on it. the ModernMix and Alt.90s channels 0wnz).
i’ve been on the hunt for MP3s that remind me of bands that I love to listen to. That whole Manchester sound that supposedly died in the early 90s. Brit Rock, with a dash of techno/industrial thrown in. Paul ripped Bauhaus’ “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” and I’ve been bopping around going “undead undead undead.” One thing I will say about Paul, since I’ve met him on-line, my cd purchasing has increased tenfold as he loves the same fucked up bands as I do. Also, CdNow has a “similar artists” info for all the bands. So I’ve been reading those and going “OH YEAH! I remember them!!” and going “damn I need to stop spending the dough.”
Speaking of which, i got tickets to see VIOLET FEMMES AT THE FILMORE!
this week has been owning so hard.
i waited for the joke
Amongst other neat-o things is that Shelly got our apartment. She moves in on August 28th. I got the phone lines turned on. I got a job OFFER from the dot commie people. I have an interview with the Washington Post.
my shit, definitely does NOT stink.
let’s see, emotionally i’m exhausted. this week decided to be the week from hell with people mind fucking left and right, breakups, declarations and other lovely things. i’ve been backing off left and right about this. i can’t deal with it and it’s not worth dealing with.
mike “I can’t call a girl cos she’ll think i’m paranoid” norton
finally sent me the signed SIP books AND the picture he drew of me (mike, not Terry Moore).
chit chat
As you know, I’ve made it pretty obvious how to contact me. Click on the link in the top nav bar for “contact” and everyplace that I hang out at is listed. However, someone suggested that I set up a bulletin board for discussing my chronicles. You can do so by going to all that and a bag of chips club on yahoo!. It’s been up since July 3rd and it’s somewhat populated. Go! Now! Discuss my interpretation of something or another! 🙂
the shaft theme is playing.
time for bed!
x0x0x0x
iMaul

i dream of you

do i look like a cartoon freak to you?
no?
didn’t think so.
so imagine my surprise (and delight) when i got hooked on Strangers in Paradise.
One of the first emails that Mike sent me, he recommended that I read SIP, and when I first looked at it via Amazon.com site, I thought “comics? ugh no.”
Then Mike and I started recommending movies* and books to each other and he kept bugging me to read SIP. And so, I ordered it Friday from Amazon and it got delivered today.
I sat at my desk and read the whole book within an hour.
“It’s comics for people who don’t like comics” — it just fucking rocks! I ADORE the characters — and I feel like such a mix between Katchoo and Francie. I’m defiently Francie’s body type with Katchoo’s attitude. I was SOOO all over the official site like white on rice. I just spent 25 bucks ordering back issues to start catching up. I fell in love with the characters and was simply amazed at how much like both Katchoo and Francine I was. On the website, Terry Moore (the artist) put up their specs and even my measurements match Francine’s. My personality is more like Katchoo’s though — long ugly past including my own trip into hell with the mafia. (True story. One I will NOT repeat.)
Upon reflection, I was surprised to realize how much of me was given back to me. Really. There is this scene where Francie’s old bf Chuck is talking to Freddie (another one of her exes) and Chuck’s description of Francie described me to a damn T. I got so enamored, I down loaded the desktop theme and made it mine.
The more I searched, the more I found I was glad to have found that the series was NOT discontinued (it always works that way doesn’t it? You find something you really like and then it’s gone!).
So I sent Mike a SIPCard and spent money on the back issues. I’m so there on buying them every month. The really cool part is that Mike is going to a comic con in Chicago in July. Terry Moore is going to be there. Mike is going to try and get something signed for me. I feel so damn cool! I know famous people! 🙂 WOOO!!
Someone mentioned i’ve been in a fairly good mood these last four weeks or so — and I tell you, reflecting back on it, I realize that most of it has to do with talking to mike. really. mike and i talk all damn day at work and when we get home from work. your looking at easily 8-10 hours PER DAY. And i’m not sick of him yet. I asked him if he was sick of me, and he said “Yeah, sure. :)”. Men, I tell you 🙂
okay, the one thing that is trepidatious out ‘us’ (whatever the fuck you call us) is that he’s frightened somewhat by my website. well, not frightened per se, but just that he’s a private person and well — i’m not. 🙂 (Gee Lisa, who would have thunk that!). In a lot of aspects, I am really very private. Again, I must say that what you see here is not all of me, put a part of me. A lot of things I’ve communicated to Mike (and others) would never make it to this website. Why? Because my whole life is not up for show and tell — it’s that simple. But I can’t help talking about Mike. He’s just so damn keen. You know, he’s the first person who really asks the right questions in god knows how long? And he’s funny. And he’s cute. And he’s tall. And he’s creative. And he’s Mike. 🙂 I like Mike. 🙂
Ohh! wanna see something cool?
Unflattering — but — 🙂
imhotep.
darthmaul.
mike.
(chant one chant all!)
As many of you who know me in a day to day basis, i’ve become obsessed with Darth Maul. first it started with the 8″ figurine that i ordered from the Mos Espay “store” on star wars official website. Then I bought the poster. Then I found darth maul legos. Then Cat bought me Darth Maul body wash and a clock for my birthday. Then I bought another poster. Will the madness ever end?!?!
Probably not. The sad truth is that Ray Park, the actor who plays him, is only 5’6″!!!!!!!
and BLONDE! to boot.
SOB
Life sucks sometimes, I tell ya.
new do
Since December, I’ve been slowly cutting my hair shorter. a few weeks back, I went to a high falutin salon that my friend Roxy suggested and had Mark Anthony (no joke, that is his name. there is a joke in there but i’m not going touch it) do my hair. I arrived on time and ended up waiting for over a 1/2 hour for his highness, i mean hairdresser, to get to me. after he pulled and looked and chopped, i was done. the funny thing was though, is that he put in like 10 different hair care products in my hair. he blew dry my hair into this big hair helmet and i felt like i had stuck my fingers in the light socket. i shelled out close to $40 bucks for said hair care products and left. I looked in the mirror and felt like i should have been wearing blue eye shadow, pink lipstick and become Ms. Texas. When Rob, Roxy’s bf, showed up the next day, he proclaimed me to be gorgeous and said that when Roxy comes home, she ALWAYS has to re-wash and re-do her hair. And Roxy is beautiful.
but my hair is my hair. it’s thick, it’s wavy. it’s colorized. it sucks when long and it’s sucking when cut certain lengths. so i decided to say “fuck it” and went shorter. i called up SuperCuts in Rockridge and went this past Sunday afternoon to have my hair cut again. it was funny, sitting there having this little Asian woman cutting so effortlessly at my hair — thinking about Mark Anthony’s work going down the tube (if you would have seen how he sat there scrutinizing my hair like it was art — you’d get that). But the end result was much shorter hair. It didn’t dawn on me till I was looking at myself in the mirror glass that is on the first floor of my office that i looked — BUTCHY! I screamed, I cried, I cursed my impulsiveness. i went in and pouted to mike. he asked for his daily picture — i said no. and he pouted and i caved in. and he called me gorgeous. i was like “shush your mouth boy. you’ve been smoking too much crack.” he said “no really, your cute but this is the best pic of you yet.” i was like “What!?!? my hair is fucked up and i have no makeup on.” He said he didn’t matter. I started blushing wildly. The bastard. 🙂 They can be so insensitive.
so, check out the picture to your left. that’s my new do. i’ll be coloring it this weekend. again. haven’t decided on WHAT color as of yet. probably dark brown or red again. we’ll see. i’m awfully pale. next thing you know i’ll be pissing black and farting bats.
oh la mour
i actually have a lot on my mind other than seemingly superficial stuff. justin. well, justin is sleeping on the floor now. finally made the move to prepare him for when i do actually leave this joint. i didn’t mind it at first with us sleeping in the same bed together after we broke up — but after awhile it started becoming more uncomfortable. there were a few instances where his hands went where they shouldn’t — but he’s in love with me and i felt bad. guilt almost. but it’s defiently not what i wanted.
it takes a lot to push me to do something sometimes. like the length of time it took me to break it off with him (again — i reiterate — he knew since October i wasn’t in love with him) — and going back to school — and moving — and work.
i’m trying really hard to struggle beneath everything.
the other night at my quasi-birthday party, everyone wondered why justin was there. well i invited him and he showed up cos it was my birthday. but that didn’t stop me from having fun. i’m single goddamnit. i can do whatever the fuck i want. there are no rings on these fingers. but i got teased and ragged on for the simple fact that:
a.) we live together still
b.) we sleep in the same bed
And the more I thought about it — how it LOOKED to actual reality and i haven’t been single in years. i want time for fun. and i like other people (well — one person in particular). i didn’t need this shit from my friends. 🙂 Well, they mean well. The whole bit about when I am going to start dating again — but it’s funny — people yell at you to get out of a bad situation and then rag on you for being single. You can’t win.
i’m doing the best i can considering the circumstances i’m in right now. so back off, please 🙂
(this is a much nicer note then what i had in my head the other day — but heck, whatever works.)
past comes back to haunt you
i got really drunk on saturday night. i don’t remember much, but this is what i do remember:

  • flitting around with a purple feather boa wrapped around my neck (must have been thinking of greg dulli — mmmm).
  • Biting and being bitten.
  • being the kissing bandit.
  • doing tequila shots with TJ.
  • Jason likes having his hair pulled.
  • Scott likes me to verbally abuse him.
  • i look damn good in black.
  • propositioning john.

the rest they say, is history.
x0x0x0x0x,
SIPGirl
*Movies I recommend:
Dream For An Insomniac
Clay Pigeons
Buffalo ’66
Opposite of Sex
Pecker

Happy Birthday To Me

Seems pretty self-explanatory to me.
Strangers in Paradise
I can either write a really happy “OH GOD IT’S LISA-MAS DAY” type of chronicle or I can be utterly depressing.
Let’s do both.
I haven’t been feeling too hot as of late. Other than the usual melee of crap running around in my head, there really isn’t nothing that is driving me nuts but maybe the onslaught of my birthday. Everything is coming up Lisa recently but, the problem is that I cannot stop obsessing about the fact that I am getting older. It’s a part of life and i have accepted it as such. as i told Chuck last night on AIM, I’ll always feel 17 in my head. He said he felt 22. It works out perfect.
Anyway, last night I got home and there was a package from my mother in the mail. I was surprised actually that she sent me something because lately I’ve been thinking that I wouldn’t receive even a phone call from her or my dad. So Cat, Justin and I were talking when I opened up the package. Inside I found the following items:
 

  • The deed to the house on Paris St that my mother bought for 70k in 1990. The house is being sold as part of her bankruptcy.
  • Original marriage license dated July 2, 1971 for Marietta K. Preiss and Edison K. Rabey
  • Immigration and naturalization papers for one Lisa M. Rabey dated February 14, 1973.
  • Photocopy for a “Complaint of Divorce” between one Marietta K. Rabey and Edison K. Rabey dated January 22, 1974.
  • Original copy of above.
  • Certificate of baptism for one Lisa M. Rabey dated July 7th, 1973.
  • Birth Certificate for one Edison K. Rabey, born May 22, 1927 in Gaspe Bay North, Quebec Canada to Thomas M. Rabey and Sarah McFee.
  • Certificate of my first communion dated May 4th, 1980.
  • Certificate of my confirmation dated April 13th, 1986.
  • One “child identification card” for Lisa M. Rabey, dated 4.12.86. I stood 5’10 and 160lbs.
  • Copy of baptismal certificate.
  • “Deans List” honor award, dated May 1, 1988 while i was in high school.Mixed along that list was a cartoon my mom sent me (any cartoon she finds that seemingly is high tech or applicable to me, she sends to me) and a letter. Her beautiful handwriting on pink paper.

i read the letter to cat and justin. parts that i couldn’t read, i handed to cat to decipher for us. i joked that in high school her handwriting made it damn hard to copy for “excused absences” when i was off skipping. her letter pretty much said the same thing her letters have been saying as of late. she’s broke. she needs money. an itinerary of her complaints. cat almost cried when i put the letter down. we couldn’t figure out as a collective why she would send me the above stuff and that letter. dated June 2, 1999. arrived June 11, 1999. she didn’t even acknowledge or wished me a happy birthday.
there are about three people in the world that i’m in contact with who know of me from when I was living in Michigan: Sherry, Shelly, Jenni and Danny. Since I communicate with Jenni, Danny and Shelly on-line now, they know (or rather verify) that my mother is nucking futs. or fucking nuts. I emailed Shelly last night right before I watched Swingers with cat and justin.

We’re gonna spend half the night driving around the Hills looking for one party and then leaving ’cause it sucks, then we’re gonna look for this other party you heard about. But, Trent, all the parties and bars, they all suck. I spend half the night trying to talk to some girl who’s eyes are darting around to see if there’s someone more important she should be talking to. And it’s like I’m supposed to be happy ’cause she’s wearing a backpack? Half of them are nasty skanks who wouldn’t be shit if they weren’t surrounded by a bunch of drunken horny assholes. I’m not gonna be one of those assholes. I want to throw up. Some fuckin’ skank who is half the woman my girlfriend is is gonna front me? It makes me want to fuckin’ puke!

vinegette
yesterday was d-day at work. i had to have Y2K crap ready to go for FirstWorld and since all the idiots didn’t get it on time, I didn’t have it finished. And my own stuff wasn’t finished. I was running around like a chicken with her head cut off pulling systems apart. one of the jacks was dead and i couldn’t repatch it via the hub. two computers died on me. otto ripped apart four machines and dumped them in my cubicle to get finished. i said fuck it and left at 8pm. i’ll deal with the shit on Sunday.


Mike has been pushing me to write my book. i started getting all defensive about it and said something really nasty about his cartoons. i couldn’t believe i said it. after i said it, i opened mouth and inserted foot. i kept apologizing up and down to him and i still felt aghast at what i had said. and he said, “yeah i understand, it’s only my lifes work.” all i kept thinking about last night when i got home from work was how awful i felt for saying it. so in conversation last night, he asks me if i had purchased Strangers in Paradise yet. I said no. So I hurried off to amazon.com and bought it. i think it’s important to him that i ‘get’ why he loves cartoons (yeah he’s a kick ass artist. i got two Mikey comix for my birthday signed. i suddenly became cool in my office for his rendition of me looking at flowers).
I’ve never gotten into comix because, well, i dunno. just never thought about it before. in turn, he asked me to recommend a book to him for him to read. we went through a few possibilities and i hit the nail on the head with Heinlein. Since my turn on to Heinlein was by Jeff who thought I would dig it, I suggested Time Enough For Love as a good intro to his work. Mike agreed it seemed good, so as a surprise I ordered it for him. Hey, i’ve been feeling down the last few days and shop when i’m depressed. Thus explains the two new CDs, darth maul poster and other crap I’ve bought on-line. I didn’t think anything about it. So when I told him what I had done, he said he felt uncomfortable with it. I understood that and cancelled the order. Mike even mentioned it in his journal.
even though I understood it, i felt worse. I had insulted him twice. i wasn’t doing anything right, it felt like. it wasn’t me talking, it was the depression i was feeling.
mike kept turning the conversation around and we started talking about my book.
i sent him the two possible starter chapters i had worked on a year ago and he liked them.
now all i have to do is write it, he says. he wants me to send chapter by chapter as i go along. giving objective opinion.
jaffo said to be prepared to say “fuck you” to anyone who says anything to me about writing.
he’s on page 200 and something into his novel.
he’s my hero.


internet luv
From a TLC reader:

“you know, it’s weird you should write about ICQ random searches… Nov. of 97,
Crystal did a random search, found me… I lived in FL, she in MO, to make a
long story short (as I figured that’s the kind you’d like, if you like them at
all 🙂 ) I came up to MO to visit my grandfather the day after Christmas of
97, met Crystal on the 28th, we were engaged on Jan 1st 98, I moved here Jan.
12, 98, and we’re getting married two weeks from today…

BTW… happy birthday :)”


it’s 5:11pm and it’s my birthday. it seemed the more i sat here writing the more depressed i got. i went and did a few shots of liquid courage (ie: Skyy Vodka) and i feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I need to shake myself out of this.
Sonya just called and said that i had to bring girls over for the party tonight as only a few females are confirmed for showing up. All my female friends that I have invited couldn’t make it. I said “who cares” — let me make an ass out of myself tonight. It’s my fscking birthday!
I want to thank everyone for the flowers, books, cd’s, chocolates, cards and other goodies that I have gotten for my birthday. Every present was as unique as the person who sent them. You guys rock. I love you all.
x0x0x0x0x0x0x,
Lisa

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