i have seen the devil...

...and his name is "large freaking piece of metal sticking out of my tire".

yup, the "6/6/6" date that everyone's been joking about today, seems to have taken out its wrath on poor vinnie. on the way to work this morning, i made a left turn, and as i straightened out of the turn the car started thumping. hrm. i pulled into a parking lot, got out and checked all 4 tires... nothing. so i pulled into a parking spot to look again, and there it was: a big piece of metal debris jutting almost 2 inches out of my front right tire. poor vinnie was so awesome, that tire stayed bravely inflated despite the pain... but after i called AAA for service, i checked again, and the tire had finally gone flat, with a sad, quiet little "sssssssss" sound coming out of it. he just looked so defeated. *weep*

so, vinnie's now in the shop getting a brand new tire (lovely timing, with my closing costs 3 weeks away). let's see what else can go wrong today... bah...

god, i love dick.

i only get to experience dick about once a year, but it's always everything i've hoped for... working myself up into a sweat, the way i get to move my body, the ringing in my ears... and it's always better if there are tons of people there to watch.

of course i'm talking about the dick dale show last night.

he completely rocked my socks off, as usual. dhpdesign and i caught him at the north star bar, which i haven't been to in over a decade... the show was completely sold out, so the place was packed, but dhpdesign had the brilliant idea to head upstairs to the balcony. most people don't even know what a great vantage point it is (*shhhhhhh*), but seriously, it looks right down onto the stage. like, you can barely see any people, because you are right up OVER the stage looking right down at the tops of the musicians' heads.



he did most of his hits, plus he totally surf-rock-ified "havah nagilah". i was a little bummed that he played to the younger crowd by singing some black eyes peas lyrics when he played "miserlou" ("miserlou" is the track sampled on their song "pump it", it's also the theme song to the movie "pulp fiction")... but whatever, it's paying his bills, right? he blew me a kiss at one point too, which made me all stupid and giddy even though he's like 100 years old.

the coolest thing about the show, though, was how nice the people in the crowd were, especially up on our balcony. when we first went up, the only people there had already staked out spots along the railing. so dhpdesign and i stood back a little bit, trying to see in between them. one guy noticed me behind him and was like, "do you want to get in?" and moved aside so i could fit in as well. a while later, somehow he lost his spot at the railing, so i made him switch places with me since he'd been nice enough to let me in to begin with. for the rest of the show, a bunch of us all took turns at the railing, letting each other in to make sure we all got to see a piece of the show from the front. it was so much better than getting the crap beaten out of me like at the boston shows, with everyone pushing to get to the front and stepping on me and starting trouble. i don't miss that at all.

so, awesome night. my ears were still ringing a bit when i got up this morning, and i dragged my butt all day, but it was so worth it. going to bed early tonight though... i'm too old to be out late on a school night.