Ruin me for this wicked town.

Before pictures: my room!

Before I start paintin' ! Last night Erica and I (and Sean!) primed the walls to our rooms. I already have a blister - weak ! There is dust EVERYWHERE. It shall be all gone by today though, and tonight is more painting and then packing.

A list.

Something I'll be missing out on this weekend: Firstcrush Friday! Erica is teaming up with Sarah aka ULTRAGRRRL and Nightmare of You's Brandon Reilly to DJ a special night at the Stolen Transmission party @ Angels & Kings. It promises to be hella fun...and cute. Hello, do you remember how cute your first crush was? (Jeff Hunt, he was a 2nd grader, I was a 3rd grader - tale as old as time.) Plus, look at Erica's ridiculously adorable flier for the event:

Currently reading: Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire, by Amanda Foreman. Georgiana was basically a celebrity of her 18th century day; she was written about in every British newspaper for her fashionable attire and where she went about town. She was also BFFs with Marie Antoinette and a sexual deviant, which makes for interesting reading. I'm totally obsessing on British aristocracy after reading the historical fiction of The Other Boleyn Girl, which was a little melodramatic for my tastes. This book's writing is a bit dry, but because it's fact makes it all the more intriguing. Apparently Hollywood is obsessing, too, because Scarlett Johanssen and Natalie Portman are playing Mary and Anne Boleyn (respectively) and Kiera Knightley will be portraying Georgiana based on these books. Is every book I read lately being turned into a movie?! (See: The Time Traveler's Wife.)

Currently listening-slash-obsessing: The Shade of Poison Trees, Dashboard Confessional. I've listened to the album perhaps thirty times since last posting about it. Now I can say without a doubt that I love it. It's already been the catalyst for two cathartic moments in the past couple of days and there's only one song that I don't care for ("Little Bombs"). It's an infinite improvement from Dusk and Summer, and I don't even know where to rank it among the other three full-lengths. When I look back at the other albums (at least the first two), and what they meant to me at such a young age, Shade is undeniably mature in comparison. While Carrabba continues to bemoan his romantic ups-and-downs, his themes have branched out to perceptions of power and money ("Where There's Gold," "Matters of Blood and Connection") and painful recovery ("The Shade of Poison Trees"). My favorite songs involve themes of two people pulling together for each other ("Thick as Thieves," "These Bones"). The music itself is not completely acoustic as it was hyped to be - which I'm so glad about. It's all acoustic guitar, but fortunately other instruments make the cut. Influences abound through each song, like "The Rush," which recalls 80s Police/U2 for me. Okay, I should stop raving. Dashboard doesn't fit everybody's tastes, so I don't expect it to resonate like this for others. But if you're interested, look into my favorite song "These Bones."

Looking forward to: Tomorrow. And Saturday. And maybe less enthusiastically Sunday. A phone call this morning settled my reticent mood; he has that kind of power.