Kate and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Today was Not a Good Day.

(Except the 3.5 hours of dinner party with delicious food where I randomly met a girl who went to my high school [!!!] and also except right now, because I am self-medicating with Halloween candy [but I'm on the last piece].)

Bacon brittle!

I just got an early birthday present.

(It's...good. Weird, but very good.)

Prejudiced no more!

I admit it: when I found out Ken Jennings is Mormon, I liked him (a lot) less. But every time I read his blog, I realize all over again how funny, well-read, and (if you can believe this!) indie rock he is.

Check out this post - it's a mash-up list of his favorite album titles. Slanted and Enchanted! The Moon and Antarctica! Vauxhall and I!

So: no more prejudice towards Mormons. Theoretically, I knew it was wrong before, but now I have hilarity and indie rock to back it up.

I wonder if he listens to KEXP?

A list: watch your food.

Items of which you have to be careful (or else I will eat the entire container/box/package/plateful):

French fries, sesame crackers, vanilla-almond cereal (I forget the brand, but I used to buy it at Whole Foods in Providence and I could literally eat the whole box in 2 days), actually ANY type of sugary cereal (an ex-boyfriend used to buy Reese's Puffs and it pretty much sealed the deal with us becoming a couple [also, he owned his very own deep fryer and listened to indie rock]), pizza crust, Trader Joe's peanut butter pretzels, the roasted broccoli at Black Bottle.

This is all a cry for help, because I just opened a package of sesame crackers and I'm home alone. Nelly and Rob are visiting this weekend and I am really trying to save some crackers for when they get back to the apartment.

(And the Black Bottle reference is for the FG [but I seriously will eat an entire plate of broccoli], who requested that I blog about this [and I cannot refuse her now that she's leaving me!] - I know a guy who met his current girlfriend at Black Bottle when they both found themselves alone at the bar, each with a drink and a plate of the broccoli. The broccoli brought them together! GHWB would not be happy [which is awesome].)

Closure.

You know how my meeting-the-Mugs experience on Thursday night was underwhelming? Well, Friday night was a complete 180. Friday afternoon, I was volunteering at the KEXP membership booth for Ballard day and Nick and Jeremy walked up for some restaurant advice. They seemed to remember me, and didn't run away screaming, so I told them they should check out the Thee Emergency/Iceage Cobra concert after the Mugs' KEXP benefit show.

Fast forward many hours (the Mugs were absolutely amazing - and I know I'm a biased source, but a ton of uninterested parties told me the same thing), after Thee Emergency and Iceage Cobra's awesome sets (seriously, Thee Emergency deserve to be superstars), and I walked up to the bar to close my tab. I feel a tap on my shoulder, and it's Nick (here I am going with the notion that he actually wanted to talk to me, and not that the band gave him 20 bucks to speak with the crazy stalker lady, but I guess that's always a possibility). We had a totally mundane 20-minute conversation about touring with the band, the Seattle Public Library, working from home, and KEXP, and then I walked away. Closure! Dude is not some mythical figure deserving of years of tuna fish sandwich-eating, code name-making, Googling, and somewhat creepy stalking.

Of course, I'm not THAT cool, because I totally ran back to my friends and screeched, "I just talked to my Mug for 20 minutes!" and they all high-fived me.

On not living up to the hype.

So, I met the Mugs last night - thanks to my friend who literally dragged me over to Jeremy, told him, "we went to Brown!" (ie, she did too, which is a total lie), and proceeded to talk to him while I sort of just stood there stupidly. At one point Nick (!!!) walked up and Jeremy kind of pulled him over, but I think it was a semi-desperate defense tactic. Oh well. Living up to my "crazy stalking girl" rep from college, I guess.

(Note: I have no idea what they actually thought - but you'd think they'd be happy that a cute girl [Betsy! But I guess I'm not ugly] wanted to talk to them. They seemed totally underwhelmed.)

And how was the CYHSY show? The show was awesome. The interaction-with-the-band part was less great, which is fine because I was very nervous about talking to them. Although one member of Takka Takka did ask me if I knew where he could get a joint, which is pretty hilarious, seeing as how I am quite possibly the LAST person in Seattle who could help him with that.

Week of Rock.

This is Kate's Week of Rock (much better than the Summer of Suckiness), did you know that? Here's a quick rundown.

Last Saturday night: party at Thee Emergency and Iceage Cobra's house.

Tomorrow: the Mugs at the High Dive.

Friday: in Ballard volunteering for KEXP all day, another Mugs show, and then (most likely, unless I'm about to pass out in a tired, hungover puddle) the Iceage Cobra cd release concert.

And tonight? Oh, you may have heard of this little band called Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Well, generally when bands play a venue, there's food and beer for them backstage. Guess who is going to make sure the CYHSY guys are fed and liquored up for their KEXP benefit show at the Showbox tonight? Why, that's right - ME. And the best part? My shift ends right when they go onstage.

(I am trying very hard not to be totally nervous.)

7 courses of beef and 3 gears.

Last night we went to Green Leaf. Awesome. We had the banh xeo (huge thin omelette-type things stuffed with bean sprouts and various meats/seafood that you wrap in lettuce leaves with cilantro and mint and dip in a fish-saucy mixture) and the SEVEN courses of beef (honestly, too much food to list - but all of it was absolutely fantastic). This was way too much food and it was only $23. But beware, the people who work there are almost frighteningly nice. (If you're scared of strangers like I am, it's stressful whenever a new employee comes to your table - they'll want to talk.)

And then I drove home! (Noteworthy because this was Nate's car.) I stalled right as I pulled into the driveway, but other than that, I was good. (Okay, so I tend to push the gas way too hard, so there's a nice revving effect whenever I try to move. Hopefully no one will think I want to drag race.)

Hershey's peanut butter kisses.

Delicious.

I hear they make coconut ones too!

On the road!

My first weekend after becoming a full-time grad student, and I didn't do a single minute of work. Whoops. But here are some things that DID happen.

I went on a 36-mile bike ride - beautiful weather and scenery, a ferry ride to the peninsula, and delicious snacks (sometimes after months of eating natural peanut butter, Jif tastes absolutely fantastic).

On Friday night, I went to two different concerts. These next few weeks I'll be seeing more live music than I have in the past 6 months (more about this later), and I am totally excited.

Saturday night - 70s party! (Although the party was at Ryan's, site of last year's infamous Halloween party, I managed to control myself this time.)

Who wants to buy my car?

And, the big news: on Saturday I drove Nate's (manually-transmissioned) car on the road! With stoplights! And other cars! And I was totally freaking out and almost hyperventilating but I didn't stall once and I didn't get in an accident. (And I'd be happy if I never had to drive it ever again.)