Laura Cushing

Look Sharp

L@labarc.com — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:01:53 GMT

We got 20 inches or so of snow that we're digging out from under.

My shoulder spent half a week hurting so bad I thought I might like to die - which turned out to be a reaction to my tetanus (TDAP vaccine) shot. It's still swollen at the injection site - next time I need to read the allergy warnings BEFORE agreeing to the shot, as one of them is for people with latex allergies, which I have. If you are allergic to latex, please talk to your doctor before having this shot because you don't want this to happen to you. It was quite painful and it's still in the rather annoying state of things. I reported my reaction to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System government site. Don't know if it does any good, but what the hey.

I'm currently reading Truman Capote's Other Voices, Other Rooms, which they did not have on the Kindle so I am reading it in actual book form.

In the interest of trying to write in my journal more again, I am going to start posting some random lists. Perhaps I will also start doing those Writer's Block things. So I present to you - one random list of...

My Ten Favorite Lines from Joe Jackson Songs

This is to say, my ten favorite lyrical phrasings - not deliveries. Deliveries would be things like the 'Call me God' in Song of Daedalus, the Spanish lines in Happyland, and the lines spoken over the transistor radio in Tuzla, which would be getting into another category entirely. A well-delivered line does not necessarily have to be lyrically sharp (see 'call me God' which is on the surface a very simple phrase, if incredibly bold and and egotistical as befits the song). This is also not necessarily an indication of which are my favorite songs musically - the fugues and the nocturnes would certainly be included in such a list, rich layered pieces that they are. One more note: if you only know Joe Jackson as 'that guy who wrote 'Is She Really Going Out With Him' and 'Steppin' Out' way back when, you should correct this fact immediately because you are cheating yourself out of all the fine pieces of music he's written since then and about thirty years of growth he's done as a musician. Not that I don't enjoy the old songs, but there's been a lot of great ones since then.

In no particular order. Links link to the song so you can listen.

1. American girls, they put their tongue in your ear when they talk on the telephone...
Don't Wanna Be Like That (I'm The Man / 1979)

2. Maybe you'd like to know what I would say if I was still around.
Invisible Man (Rain / 2008)

3. Call me weird and laugh at me - I tell you it's true. I found a cure for Gravity.
Song of Daedalus (Heaven and Hell / )

4. It's the crack of noon and I sit here watching you sleeping. I only wish that I could remember your name.
Love at First Light ( Volume 4 / 2003 )

5. It's not the time to kill - not that he forgets. As he takes a crumpled bill and thinks this is better yet.
Tuzla ( Heaven and Hell / 1997)

6. I watch my pen as though my fingers could shatter like icicles and before my eyes lie glittering and useless on a field of snow.
Lullaby ( Night Music / 1994 )

7. Everything we said is there on a tape for the future to play. Let's put it in the ground- that's where it ought to stay.
Ever After ( Night Music / 1994)

8.He gave me a wink and he said it was funny how mortals would pour all their blood, sweat and tears onto tape, onto paper, or into the air to be lost and forgotten outside of his kind employ.
The Man Who Wrote Danny Boy ( Night Music / 1994 )

9. We're never married, never faithful - not to any town. But we never leave the past behind - we just accumulate.
Hometown ( Big World / 1986)

10. In all the universe I’m just a speck of dust, but all I can do is keep trying . . . .to give you the human touch.
The Human Touch (Blaze of Glory / 1989 )

From Twitter 12-19-2009

L@labarc.com — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 07:08:54 GMT

03:22:21: Why did Myspace eat Imeem? That's annoying.

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L@labarc.com — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 16:00:22 GMT

02:22 Why did Myspace eat Imeem? That's annoying. #

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Eff you, Comcast.

L@labarc.com — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:16:31 GMT

I hate Comcast. We lost service (internet, phone, and tv) for three hours today after they were effing around at the poll. They wanted to 'send someone out tomorrow sometime' which I found unacceptable. A bit of me threatening to go down their and put my foot up someone's ass later, they sent out a technician. The problem? They were supposed to shut off a neighbor's service and shut ours off instead. WTF.

The only problem is that Verizon is the only other option and they suck even worse.

Packaged goods

L@labarc.com — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:27:58 GMT

$68 dollars in shipping costs, ouch - but at least all the holiday packages are sent now. Other than Christmas cards, this means I'm all done sending things out woot! Done shopping? Check. Done sending? Check. Tis the season to be prepared this year.

I am cutting down on a lot of my holiday animosity by trying to get things done well ahead of time. I figure a large part of why I don't like the holidays is the stress it causes. That I can do something about, and that's what I'm trying to do here. The other parts I dislike about it are all the commercial hype going on (which I try to just ignore), and that whole holidays associated with death thing. Don't know really what to do about that one, to be honest - I've kinda hated the holidays ever since that one year dad was dying from Thanksgiving almost all the way to easter. Man, did that suck. At least I can identify what causes my issues which I suppose is a good step.

Remember, if you want a card, sign up here with a screened comment or email your address to L@labarc.com.

Dead baby dreams, court, insurance...

L@labarc.com — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:24:30 GMT

Half remember a couple of dreams last night. One was that I was sleeping on the lawn, because I wanted to be outside in the fresh air and wind while I slept. I had a blanket spread out there, and I woke up to answer a text on my phone from someone asking if I was sleeping on the lawn again. And I texted back if that if you live in an area where crime's low enough isn't it nice to sleep where you can breathe?

The other dream was somewhat more disturbing - it involved being a girl at a girl's boarding school. There were these catty girls talking about vanity domains on the internet and one girl said "Oh, I'm not a domainist" in the same way one might say racist or sexist. I had an english class to go to, but I had to use the bathroom first. In the bathroom I discovered that there was a shower running and I pulled back the curtain because it was clear to see that there was no outline of a person in it so I could turn the water off. Face down in the water were two newborn babies (twins?). One of them was floating and the other was making some half-hearted swimming motions. I turned the water off and pulled them out and I remember feeling how cold their skin was and trying to revive them before they died. Don't know if that worked or not as I woke up.

I have to go to court with Steve early tomorrow morning over some incredibly stupid stuff. Teenagers are very good at getting themselves into stupid things. I am already stressing out about it, as it involves so many stressful things and I'm not really good with all that.

And today I got all kinda pissed off getting my oil changed. The yahoos that work there couldn't get the hood open so the guy comes to me in a completely condescending fashion and tells me that I have a 'problem' with my hood and I'll have to get it fixed before I got my oil changed. The problem was that despite the banging they did on my hood like complete idiots (which lucky for them they didn't do hard enough to actually dent anything- which also of course meant if a stuck hood WAS the problem it was unlikely to work). You have to stick your finger in to unlatch the latch, which took all of three seconds once I informed them. They were still smarmy and tried to claim I didn't understand it was some kind of spring or wire problem really - no, of course it wasn't them. Oy.

Our insurance finally kicked in, and it turns out that the doctor I wanted to go to does indeed take it - so Aus and I both have appointments for December 14th. I have a bunch of papers to fill out, and I've got to get our records transfered from the clinic and all but it's a step in the positive direction. It'll be really nice to see a proper doctor again. And I have so many other medical things that I need - dentist to get my dentures hopefully, eye doctor to get new glasses, gynecologist to get checked up and all... it's nice that we can get started on all that now.

Christmas / Holiday Cards

L@labarc.com — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:10:00 GMT

It's that time of year again! If you want to receive a Christmas card from me and Aus, please leave a comment with your address on this live journal post (all comments are screened for your privacy) , the facebook post that this will generate, or email me at L@labarc.com with a subject of Christmas Card.

Yes, even if I should have your address and have asked you a million times before - I lose these things. Please leave it for me again.

Here is our po box if you would like to send us a card:

Laura and Aus Cushing
po box 141
Newtonville, NJ 08346-0141

Also? We are entirely done our Christmas shopping and did it all online. Fear us!

It's not Wal-Mart policy to bless customers.

L@labarc.com — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:09:15 GMT

Wal-Mart. You know you have to go there. You dread having to go there. It's pretty much the place that sucks you in because a) it's the only store in town that has what you need and b) it's got those low, low prices. Really though, it's like some sort of circle of hell and usually when I go in there I expect to deal with rude, surly people who are disgruntled by working for The Man. I'm cool with that. If I had to work at Wallyworld, I'd be pissed off too. Hell, when Aus worked for them he was frequently one thin hair from postal.

What I don't expect is for my cashier to God Bless me. Really, I don't. Few things annoy me more than someone foisting their religion onto me in an unwelcome and completely random manner. For a while, I dealt with this annoyance by asking questions like "Which God?" and "Bless me with what?" but the cashier just got this deer-in-headlights look that people get when asked to think outside of random reactions. Finally I just explained to her that look, not everyone's a Christian, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't bless me and we can just get on with the business of me paying you money for this made-in-china garbage I'm purchasing. So though this lady wears a million Jesus pins on her uniform, and she still God Blesses everyone else that comes in the store, she says to me 'have a nice day' instead. This is all well and good. Everything is right with the Wallyworld (or at least as right as it ever gets).

Fast forward about a year, and they have a new cashier. She's about 19 or 20, chewing gum and wearing a shiny gold cross necklace. She tells us "God Bless you and have Bless-ED holiday season" (I really hate how they say Bless-ED , but that's an entirely separate rant). So I try telling he that I don't want to be blessed by random gods thank you, since this strategy worked well with the other one. This girl just waved her cross around and belligerently re-blessed (or re-bless-ED) me.

I went to customer service to explain to them my problem, that this was the second of their cashiers that was God-Blessing people and that not everyone is a Christian, and it's pretty offensive and could they do something about it. The manager turns to me and says with a straight face that he'll have a talk with her because "It's not Wal-Mart policy to bless customers."

Netpire

L@labarc.com — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:49:27 GMT

(Aus) L has risen. And checked her mail.

(Metody) She's a netpire!

(L[nap]) rarr
(L[nap]) I vant to suck your bandwidth.

Can you make an appointment? Probably not.

L@labarc.com — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:43:30 GMT

I'm trying to get Aus in to see the doctor at the same time as my appointment today at 4:15, because he's caught my sinus problem. This should be a fairly simple thing, right? Wrong.

27 minutes on hold, shuffled through the phone system three times, only to be given to someone's goddamn voice mail. Have I mentioned how much I hate the clinic? Well let me mention it again. Completely incompetent, surly staff members that barely tend to your needs. The doctor is nice, but you only see him for five minutes after waiting three hours if you manage to get through the phone maze to make an appointment to begin with.

I'm also pissed off that they sent us insurance cards we can't use until December first, because we could have gotten coverage in a timely manner, we wouldn't be doing this song-and-dance with the clinic yet-a-fucking-gain.

That thing with the sinuses has gone down into my chest now, so I'm kind of coughing and rumbling in addition to being all nasally congested. The steroids and antibiotics they gave me at the hospital must be helping on some level, because now at least I don't feel the dreadful pressure in my ears and head so much.

In other news, I wrote two stories to kick my nano efforts off yesterday. Here's hoping that I'll be able to do some more writing when I'm done with being pissed off, and/or back from the clinic. (Note: this is not very likely. I just called the doctor back and in addition to all the usual hold garbage, I got a notice that says 'You are seventh in line'. Fucking balls.)

I also spent some time yesterday watching the V marathon on the Sci Fi channel (I refuse to use their new name - when did they start with that lameness?). V was one of my favorites as a teenager, and I'm looking forward to the remake. I really hope they don't ruin it.

Back on the phone with the doctor... fifteen minutes and two shuffles so far. A bit of yelling and DO NOT GIVE ME TO VOICEMAIL later, and I'm finally making what might be progress. Then they put me on hold. Again. Another interminable wait.... then they fucking put me through to the voice mail. Where I told them not to send me. Twice. This is extremely non-helpful.

Happy Halloween

L@labarc.com — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:57:58 GMT

Hope everyone's having a good one. I'm just handing out candy (hopefully without a side of sinus infection) this year.

I've been pretty sick - went to the ER the other night and they put me on steroids and antibiotics. Have to go to the doctor Monday and get checked up.

I have another freelance job, which is both good and bad. I applied for it on a whim Thursday and it said 'will get back to applicants in two weeks'. Well. I guess they liked my application because they got back to me the very next day... which is a little inconvenient. I was counting on having that two week window to feel better. So now I have to come up with a bio, and a photo of myself, etc to them in three business days. Then I have to submit to a background check and set up my tax form etc. It's for three short blurbs a week, so it's a little more high volume than I'm used to but shorter pieces. They also don't claim exclusive rights, so I can reuse them anywhere else. It's also more of a specific focus than I'm used to - I'll be the 'Atlantic City area indie music columnist.' So at least some of the content I'll be putting into it will be area specific. That means if you're a musician in my area and want to be interviewed for a column or have one of your concerts reviewed, get in touch.

This also means I need to get my shit together with lauracushing.com as in posting the actual content that needs to go up there.

And... tomorrow starts NaNoWrimo. This year I'm going to be doing a series of short stories instead of an actual novel attempt, because let's face it my life is too chaotic to write an entire novel and short stories are more my forte anyhow. With the exception of 2006, I haven't won a year - so maybe I'll manage to do it this year by being somewhat lax on the rules. Though I may mix in completely unrelated stories, my primary focus is going to be heil_hans and vavarner and the various support characters that fit into their world. If you have a suggestion of a story you'd like to see me write, a prompt or anything like that- please let me know in a comment. It'll help!

Being sick of course, I have zero motivation to do any of this. Going to try anyhow.

But haven't you always wanted a cheese slicer?

L@labarc.com — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:51:17 GMT

So you may recall I got a new netbook a while back. At the same time we bought that, we also bought additional memory for it. We were going to upgrade the memory on this and on the old laptop, which we are going to fix up to give to a friend who is having heinous computer issues. So the first problem in our clever plan came when we discovered none of the approximately fifty million screwdrivers we have around here will actually fit the screws on the back of the computers.

Well, fine. We decided to do the sensible thing and order an electronics kit from Amazon. We wait for an interminable amount of time for that to actually arrive until today, when I get a package from Amazon. Exited I open it up... very surprised to find two huge air bubbles and nothing but a packing slip and some very light object at the bottom. This can't possibly be what we ordered, can it? Why no. No it isn't. It is, in fact, a CHEESE SLICER. A steel bladed cheese slicer with a rubber handle, how fancy. How.... not what we ordered at all. Pardon me while I cheese slice the back of my computer to get at the memory inside. Yeah, that'll work.

More fucking delays. Joy.

Oh, and speaking of delays... we got our insurance cards in the mail yesterday. Good news, right? Yeah, except that coverage doesn't actually start until December 1st and their 'helpful' website shows like ten doctors in all of South Jersey who will actually take the insurance. So I have to call around to doctors and see if any of the ones I actually want to go to will take what we have. But hey, I've got a whole five weeks or so to do it in! Five whole weeks of still being sick, unless I want to give in and go to the goddamn clinic again- in which you wait three hours to be seen for five minutes and usually it doesn't do any good anyhow.

From Twitter 10-23-2009

L@labarc.com — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 07:09:19 GMT

01:35:53: Cannot muster up the urge to go to the NaNoWrimo kickoff tomorrow. Stupid sinuses have me all worn down and not feeling particularly social.

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Old People are Driving! / Big Sur

L@labarc.com — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:53:02 GMT

My day started off with having to avoid a gaggle of old people who wanted me to accompany them to lunch. The phrase 'Uncle Leon is driving' should never be uttered by anyone. He's 88 and doesn't look when he pulls out into traffic anymore. Then my mom had this 'brilliant' idea and asked to borrow the GPS (or as she calls it, the GSP) so they could find the restaurant they wanted to go to without involving me. Like I'm going to send out my 200+ dollar electronic equipment with three seniors who have no idea how to use it. Yeahhhh... let me get right on that.

After escaping from that, my day removed remarkably. I'm still trying to beat this sinus infection (I have antibiotics on the way, that should help) so I'm mostly just lounging about. Nathan sent me a link to this NPR story about Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie, the Postal Service) and Jay Farrar (Son Volt) coming together and making an album based on Jack Kerouac's Big Sur. You can listen to the whole album there - it came out today supposedly. So I've been listening to it - it's quite good. The album is titled One Fast Move Or I'm Gone: Music From Kerouac's Big Sur.

MICROWAVE BAKED APPLE

L@labarc.com — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:52:04 GMT

1 med. baking apple
1 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tsp. butter
Cinnamon

Wash and core apple. Pare a thin section of skin from top of apple. Fill center of apple with brown sugar and top with butter. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Cook uncovered in microwave 2 to 2 1/2 minutes at high or until almost tender. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Cook 2 apples 3 to 3 1/2 minutes at high. Cook 3 apples 4 to 4 1/2 minutes at high. Cook 4 apples 5 to 5 1/2 minutes at high.

(recipe from cooks.com)

SO GOOD. Next time it will be even better because I am going to buy an apple corer - it was a little rough getting the core out, and a lot of the yummy stuff leaked out of the bottom of the apple. I also put some raisins into mine. Nom nom

Nano support / prompt community

L@labarc.com — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:46:37 GMT

Just wanted to remind folks that charloft is offering NaNoWriMo support again this year. We will be having word count check-in posts, a live Nano chatroom, word wars, inspirational posts and more all through the month of November!

Charloft also operates year 'round, providing a daily character related writing prompt. We're just about to celebrate our first anniversary! Hope you'll come check us out.

Last night's dream

L@labarc.com — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:31:01 GMT

Lying in the middle of a desert with a very blue sky overhead - nothing but parched earth under me. Lay down and tore open my chest (it didn't hurt) and thousands of spectral black birds (crows? ravens?) flew out of my chest in a cloud type formation, enough to black out the sky.

I think this might be a sign that my body would like to get read of this congestion now!

James Ellroy - creepy mofo

L@labarc.com — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 05:48:41 GMT

James Ellroy is one seriously creepy dude. Watching Murder By The Book and he's on there taking about his mother's murder (and repeating about a million times how he lusted for her and hated her and wanted her dead) and opening the box of murder evidence and SNIFFING HER DRESS.

Yes, the one she died in.

Earlier in the program he's talking about how he used to break into women's houses to see their bedrooms and peep into windows and such.

I mean yes I understand his mother's murder and then being raised by his sleezeball dad warped his brains a little but HOLY CREEPY DUDE.

Shriners

L@labarc.com — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 04:01:33 GMT

Today I got kidnapped my mom and Joe to go to the Padre Pio shrine. It's kinda like a mini Catholic Disneyland. There's church music playing through loudspeakers, and this pyramid shaped enclave under which was a bronze statue of Padre Pio. The other statues around were all stone, and they had benches and such so you could sit and reflect or pray.

They had push button candles (no one would let me push the button) and plastic rosaries (was also not allowed to take one of these) . We did however visit the gift shack behind the place (it kinda looks like my shed) where one can purchase everything from holy water, to saint medallions and other such kitsch items. I got a Padre Pio coin for my coin collection.

No one appreciates my plan to sell holy water as blessed by Creepy Jesus (except for maybe Ron, but he suggested questionable ingredients the last time this came up). We have water, a shed and a statue! We could get bottles.

In short:

1) No one ever lets me play with any of the fun things.

2) All my good ideas get shot down.

From Twitter 10-02-2009

L@labarc.com — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 07:09:28 GMT

21:47:44: I am now the proud owner of some amazingly purple jersey knit sheets. So comfy. Also, a shoe rack that is too large for the closet. Oops.

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Live Journal Anthology

L@labarc.com — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 23:05:38 GMT

This is the Live Journal book that I contributed to. Pay was 25 dollar LJ gift certificate , plus 50 dollar Blurb gift certificate to purchase a contributor's copy of the book in whatever format I wanted. I chose the super deluxe hardcover version - which meant I wound up having to pay $1.94 in shipping, but hey. My contribution is a journal entry I did involving an incident that took place in our neighborhood.

Says it will ship on October 8th, so will let you know when it arrives how the book is.

Random trivia: This is my second book contribution - the first being a blurb that appears in a book called It's Never Too Late To Become A Buffy Fan by Kiss Me Jane Productions.

Oh Delaware, how you amuse me....

L@labarc.com — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 06:22:41 GMT

Today we drove to Newark, Delaware in search of CiCi's Pizza Buffet - which yes, pretty much rocks. All the pizza, salad, pasta, and dessert you can eat for six dollars. Yes indeed. We stopped at a nice park in New Castle too - walked by the water and down a pier and everything.

Along the way, we saw what might very well be the most hilarious business name ever - Analtech! We pulled over just to take pictures. As you can see, I made one into an icon.

All the pictures (taken by Aus) can be found up here on Facebook.

Laura Cushing Dot Com

L@labarc.com — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 23:40:48 GMT

Been doing some work on http://lauracushing.com - there's a basic layout up there now at least, if not the actual content. I'm hoping to get back to work, hoping to find some musicians who are in need of our services, build up some contacts again. I've got a few feelers out there, sent out some messages to a few folks look like they might need things done. Here's hoping some of that comes back with work. Between the economy and me having problems (that I know now were related to the blood pressure), all the previous work dried up. So I feel like I'm starting again from square one. That's why it's important to get the portfolio up, let people know who we've worked with and what we did for them and some testimonials and so forth.

Something unpleasant is going on in my lungs. Either it's just from allergy season, or I'm coming down with something which I so do not need right now. Got some allergy stuff, and we'll see if that does anything.

For those who voted in the poll - you will be happy to know that the dead possum was kicked into the road, and animal control was called. "Its not just playing" I assured them, and they came to collect the corpse. Problem solved.

L@labarc.com — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:01:04 GMT

00:27 My brother's visiting from Virginia. I spent some quality time today having lunch with him, and petting his cat and dog. #

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He's not just playing....

L@labarc.com — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 05:07:36 GMT

So... hypothetical question. A possum dies in your yard for no discernible reason - you just kinda go outside and ZOMG DEAD POSSUM under the tree.

Do you...

View Poll: Dead Possums aren't Much Fun ... or are they?

Because three is looking likely, but four is oh-so-tempting.