…the italians-a have-a the accent-a! (HAPPY C-DAY!)

They actually sound like that! It’s hilarious to listen to them try to explain directions (I’m a terrible person, but you knew this already). They’re also convinced that saying okay after every sentence, both yours AND theirs, makes everything clearer. News flash: WTF, no. Anyway, today’s missions were Pisa and Venezia. We were up at the crack of 7 am, dressed and breakfasted by 7:45, and out the door.

Driving to Pisa went smoothly, despite the fact I wanted to throw our GPS (which we named “Šefica”) out the window for repeating the phrase “Enter the roundabout” about 4 hundred times. Actually, this has been a recurring theme in Italy…there are roundabouts EVERYWHERE, DAMMIT. Anyway. All rage aside, it was a good drive. In other news, I squeed like a little fangirl upon seeing the leaning tower, and took an unnecessary amount of photos. Also, this being my family, we took a series of pictures playing with perspective. Sadly, my mother wouldn’t let me do one with me pretending to knock down the tower with my foot, yelling “THIS ISN’T MADNESS, THIS IS PISSSAAAAAA!” Why, you may ask? I was wearing a skirt. I was initially going to climb those stairs and make the tower my bitch, but the next tour was in 45 minutes. The reason why waiting wouldn’t have been awesome was the fact we actually had to drive to Venezia right after, and we weren’t to have lunch until we arrived. THEREFORE, food won. We left for Venezia, and managed to miss the turnoff for it because our GPS lied (i.e. the new stretch of the autostrada was not loaded to its map). So, while driving on the new stretch of gloriously smooth road, our GPS kept showing our little blue vehicle spinning in circles and driving on farmland. AWESOME. We then got caught in a freak downpour, making my dad infinitely more frustrated than he had been before, so we all shut up for a good 45 minutes.

**Imagination hint: to accurately imagine my father’s face during this episode of our trip, imagine me both pissed off at the rain AND unimpressed with technology, then superimpose that on my father’s face (also add another cm of eyebrow and remove most of my hair). FUN, EH?

We ended up not surviving the trip without food, so we stopped at a roadside grill and got paninis. Yes. More paninis. Christ, they’re delish. Later, we finally arrived in Venezia, parked our car in a giant garage and went on a WATERBUS. YES. A boat. That serves the purpose of the OC Translut. I don’t know if you will be nearly as entertained as I, but who cares? I played “I’m on a boat” for the entire trip, saddened by the fact I didn’t have a nautical-themed pashmina afghan. By the way, I apologize for the lack of continuity that is most likely present in a good 90% of these entries; I’m not exactly focussing on making this a literary masterpiece. That, and this is how I speak/tell stories, so you should be used to it by now.

Sidenote: I am totally wearing red and white today. Makeup included. Fuckyeah!

After a short break period in our sweet (read: ancient and ghetto) hotel room, we went out to investigate la Piazza S. Marco (or something to that effect) and get mauled by pigeons. Later, since we were starving, and saddened that we couldn’t swim in the bit of the Adriatic that touches the city, we went to have dinner. I ordered my fave pizza, con quattro formaggi, because I love cheese, dammit…and what I received can simply be described as pizza dough with a brick of Gorgonzola melted on top. To comprehend the sheer volume of melted cheese undulating (yes, undulating…it was unsettling) on my pizza, imagine the amount of sauce Eleni and I would EACH put on our pasta if we were serving ourselves, combine it, then dump it on a crust. Then sprinkle it with parmigiano. I’m not quite sure where the ‘quattro’ part came into play, but I will assume there were two other cheeses melted into the lake of Gorgonzola. I’m pretty sure that there was an entire ecosystem within that thing.

FUN FACT: I absolutely hated all forms of blue cheese until this trip?

OTHER FUN FACT: My brother has gotten nutella on every single pair of pants he has worn to breakfast.

HAH! Okay, so I remembered something entertaining from when we went to the Vatican: I saw this incredi-bro carrying a pink, flowery parasol as naturally as if it were a beer or something else brotastic (a football?). This was also right in front of St. Peter’s Basilica, making it exponentially more hilarious, for whatever reason.

Tomorrow morning, we leave for Zagreb, and leave touristing behind. Now comes the part of the vacation in which I make poor decisions, like drinking too much, eating shawarma before hanging out with people, and being way too forward. I’m super-excited. After Zagreb, it is time for me to reclaim the glory that is the Croatian coast. Ohhhh mannnnn. Just thinking about it makes me all warm and fuzzy. Man, I never realize how tired I am until I lie down. Frig. My alarm is set to 7 am again, so I’m off to catch some Zs (dumbest expression ever).

HAPPY CANADA DAY, ALL! I hope you had a wicked time and I want to hear all the stories after.

P.S. I bought myself a Murano glass necklace. It is so le pretty. And orange.

…mmm, sexy pasta.

This morning, we woke at 6:30, completely well-rested, despite the fact our power (and subsequently, air conditioning) went out immediately after I finished yesterday’s entry. To accurately portray how much walking we did over the past several days, I woke up with my calves burning. Yes. MY calves were sore from walking. We set off for Firenze immediately after breakfast, stopping only for a sightseeing fiesta in Siena. For those of you who have never heard of this city, it’s the place where the opening parcour chase scene of Quantum of Solace takes place. The scene also portrays the Palio di Siena, which is a horse race that occurs twice a year. There are 17 neighbourhoods in the city; however, only 10 are represented at each event (I’m assuming there’s some form of qualifier). Each neighbourhood has its own coat of arms and flag, and its own horse in the race, so the rivalry is pretty intense. I wish I could be here for it, but we’re only staying the night, and it takes place the 2^nd of July. In any case, that was pretty badawesome. Also, near the Piazza del Campo, there was a store selling “sexy pasta;” that is to say, pasta in the shape of genitalia. Wonderful <3. We drove to Firenze soon after eating paninis for lunch (quelle surprise) and arrived around 3. At that point, I discovered our hotel had free wi-fi and got all excited. That is when I got my facebook/blog on. Heyo!

Later that night, while we were touristing around Firenze (post-dinner), my brother pointed out that we had eaten every meal that day in a different city. Story of my family’s life…and I love it! We visited the Duomo, il Ponte Vecchio and other various old things around the city. Awesome deal. No poor decisions were made today, alas, but I expect Zagreb to be the true kickoff, as I’m going out on the town with Marko. Allllright.

Tomorrow, we leave for Pisa in the morning (look out for <i> </i> jokes on my part), then hit Venezia in the late afternoon. It is now bathing time – ciao!

…”the polizia are a bit more beautiful.”

FYI…This is post 2/2 today; I broke the two masses of text up for ease of reading.

29.06.2009

Today, we were all up at sunrise, puttering about, and planning out our day. We had breakfast at the hotel, under the lurking eye of the (absolutely terrifying) owner. I felt that if we had looked at her in the wrong way, she would’ve beaten the crap out of us with a cappuccino cup and a danish. Immediately afterwards, we went on an adventure to buy bus tickets so that we could get to the Vatican. I have now officially established that absolutely everything here is gorgeous. The Vatican was absolutely stunning, with St. Peter’s Basilica taking the cake. We didn’t stay inside for very long, since large hordes of people had arrived to attend the holiday mass, but it was enough to marvel at the grandeur of the building and its art.  The choir was lovely, though, and we got to see the new pope being pope-y. After frolicking around, we walked to Castle St. Angelo and took some more photos while listening to some Aussies being…themselves. At this point, my mom and I were really curious as to what the difference between the Carabinieri and the Polizia was (we had seen a lot of both over the past two days), so we found some policemen and asked them. Here are the facts: The Carabinieri are more of a local police, whereas the Polizia are state police. What you should also know, as said by the youngest of the three policemen we had consulted, is that “the polizia are a bit more beautiful.” Now you are up to speed.

As far as the rest of the day goes, it was mostly spent doing more touristy biz; that is to say, we actually went INTO the Coliseum and ye olde fangirled before hitting up the Parthenon and several other awesome Piazzas. What is absolutely fascinating about Rome is that no matter where you go, there will be some gigantic, beautifully constructed marble building just hangin’ out. It is usually a church, with hilarious Latin phrases like “Always Immaculate Virgins” carved into the stone above the entrance. The scale of these buildings is preposterous, and completely awe-inspiring. Honestly, just staring at the Parthenon’s marble columns and attempting to fathom their dimensions gave me an aneurysm.

Fun foreign misspelling of the day: “Sanwechees” = “Sandwiches,” apparently.

It’s not even 9 pm, but after 6 solid hours of walking in the sun, I am about ready to collapse. I bid you adieu til tomorrow, and our drive to Firenze!

…i fell in love, and his name was Lamborghini.

27-28.06.2009

The day slowly draws to a close and I am hanging out here, in our nearly 15 square metre (haha) hotel room, just chillin’. I am 360 degrees of tired, but I don’t want to go to bed yet, as I’ll wake up at 3 am craving prosciutto, bocconcini and tomatoes. That’s just me, though. Anyway. Our trip started off really well, with a gloriously comfortable flight on a Boeing 767 that actually had LEG ROOM. Airbuses can suck it.

First irrelevant fact of the entry: today was the first time I had ever eaten my airplane dessert (for the record, I absolutely love airplane food).

I sat next to HawkMom, directly behind her two offspring, Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber. When we were 15 minutes from our destination, the girl asked, really loudly, if the body of water below us was the ocean, when a) that is impossible if you know ANY geography, and b) the map 15 cm from her face showed us flying over the MEDITERRANEAN SEA. The duo also said a variety of other equally stupid things throughout the flight, but nothing particularly noteworthy. The stupid quotation of the day instead came from a septuagenarian seated diagonally across the aisle from me. The sunrise over the wing was absolutely gorgeous, and like most of the people on our side of the plane, she wished to have a photo. Given the fact she was too far from the window to get a decent shot, she asked Tweedledumb to take the photo for her because, and I quote, “My friends in Nova Scotia will never believe that it was sunny here when it was near midnight over there!” Apparently, her friends were never introduced to the concept of Earth’s axial rotation…and the fact it is round. Is it Nova Scotia that has its own time zone? Maybe that’s why they’re day/night retarded. I don’t know. In any case, we landed in Leonardo da Vinci airport soon thereafter, and proceeded to try to navigate an airport designed by the bastard offspring of the creator of DDR and a hobo. There were arrows everywhere, but none of them led us to where we wanted to go, and wherever we did end up, was covered with filth. I definitely had huge expectations of the airport and was sorely disappointed. Way to name an ugly and confusing airport after one of the greatest artists of all time, douchewads. However, all our walking was not in vain! I discovered something very crucial: Italian men, contrary to popular belief, are actually good-looking. None of this greasy, furry-chested nonsense. They’re actually attractive. Christ, I love Europe.

We finally got to our hotel, after surviving 45 minutes on Roman roads. There is nothing quite like getting caught in a circus of 13 cars executing some sort of twisted three-man-weave in the middle of a turn. Did I mention there were 4 lanes of cars on a street with only 2 lanes? I’ll let your imaginations fill in the rest.

**Imagination hint: Think of the game Rush Hour, but instead of being completely stationary, it’s happening at 60 km/h with hilariously tiny cars, Vespas, honking and angry Italian men.

For lunch, we had authentic Italian pizza (So. Damn. Good) at a little pizzeria by our hotel, and then we went back to our room to pass out until dinner. After waking and bathing, we got dressed up and headed out to sightsee like good little tourists. I can’t really do any of the locations justice, no matter how hard I try to describe them, so you will have to wait for the (many) photos. All I can say is that it was breathtaking. I wandered the streets, staring up at the architecture like it was about to shower me with money, shoes and carbs. We went to il Colosseo, the Forum of Peace, la Fontana di Trevi and la Piazza de Spagna (I probably spelled these incorrectly), stopping to grab cappuccinos and paninis in between.

Sidenote: The waiter at the panini place was possibly the most entertaining man I have ever come across. He was just so lively and ridiculous that it brought me joy.

Sidenote 2: Everyone was so well-dressed.

On our way back, we came across an orange Lamborghini Gallardo (read: my dream vehicle) and took photos (in my dad’s case) and salivated (in mine). The owner came back as we were walking away, and the sound that car made while driving off made me more than a little happy in the pants. Mmm. Past the street my dream vehicle was parked on, there was a square with a large fountain in the centre. Italy, I am pretty sure, is the only place where a giant golden statue of a naked man kneeling and bathing himself with city water is considered art. After this glorious(ly alarming) sight, we headed back, as both my ankles were roughly the size of mangoes, only stopping to get some gelato at the gelateria directly across the street from our hotel. Awesome. I love Rome so far, and can’t wait to see the Vatican tomorrow! I am going to get my ass to bed now, kiddos.

I leave you with this overheard statement: “I don’t mean to stereotype, but I miss tacos and free water.”

…this shit’s definitely not about hair.

It is, according to my computer, officially Friday, June 26th. With that said, only 24 hours separate me from the total mental scarring I will be causing Italians, Croats and Bosnians (the latter is highly unlikely, now that I think about it. They do a great job of inflicting that upon themselves by merely existing). I am nearly done all my packing, and have several errands still to run (hey, fuck you, OSAP)…in addition to seeing a few more people and gettin’ paid, dammit! YEAH.

Goals for today:

a) Don’t forget all your stupid coaching paraphanaelia

b) Mail OSAP forms, as my work hours completely obliterate any chance of me being able to actually hand shit in to the useless office on campus

c) Buy several irritatingly absent items from Shoppers

d) Finish Cuppedia poster while entertaining a room full of children at lunchtime (and subsequently scan & email it to my boss)

e) Go out for drinks with the head coach at our club

f) Make questionable purchase of unnecessarily gangster Famous hat so that I may further confuse both my family and the general populace of Europe with my impressive caucasian-ness.

g) SEE THE CREW. I loves.

h) PACK.

i) CHARGE ALL MY GODDAMN ELECTRONICS (iPod, mostly – p.s. Eleni, I renamed it Wade Wilson).

I can do it. I have faith. In any case, I never sleep the night before I travel, anyway, so no harm done.

Also, in other news, airplanes should have places for me to plug in my computer so that I may watch Battlestar Galactica in lieu of shitty in-flight movies that severely lack cylons, shit blowing up, and Jamie Bamber.  I wonder what season I should bring. 3? I think yes.

I also feel the need to buy myself an entertaining novel, or two, just for beach/travel purposes. Yay for frivolous spending! Whoo!

…aaaaaaaand that is all for my late night, pre-trip word vomit. I swear, my later posts may actually…MAKE SENSE?! *le dramatic gasp* Actually, that’s a fucking lie. Word vomit is how I roll, son.

P.S. The new Alexisonfire is deliciously mature and is making for some great summer listenin’.

P.P.S. I actually already have a tag for Alexisonfire…ha.

…real pain for my sham friends.

Okay. SO. Here’s the Earth…no. I am not going to write down the entire “End of the World” video from memory. What I am going to do, however, is share my decision on renaming my family trip and subsequently, this blog. The “Poor Decisions” Tour ‘09 kicks off in 16 days, and I am so excited to get everything underway. It is also named the “WWTRD (What Would Tim Riggins Do)” Tour, as that character pretty much does the opposite of what I’d normally do, in every situation. The aim of this vacation is, basically, to step outside of myself and experience life in a whole new way.

I ONLY DO IT FOR THE SCARS AND STORIES, Y’ALL.

I need to stop pretending to be southern. Just sayin’.

P.S. A cookie for whoever makes the connection between the subject line of this post and the content.

…action is the anecdote.

I’ve recently been on a North-American-treat-baking spree, continued today by the introduction of brownies to my household. Whoever came up with the recipe I used, however, must be mildly retarded, as I cut it in half and used a smaller pan, but got the thinnest brownies ever? Whatever…we will see if they’re delicious when they cool.I hope yes.

My peanut butter chocolate chip cookies were extremely successful, though! I modified the original recipe to make them a tad more chewy and as a result, they actually kept longer. Mmm. I am entirely convinced that I will be photographing all the food I eat on my vacay (Italian, Croatian coastal and Bosnian cuisine? YES PLEASE) and chronicling that, rather than my experiences, haha. Who will be surprised? Nobody.

If you will excuse me, I think I’m going to go put some pants on as I’m expecting company.

…finally, vacay dates.

Today, I was finally informed of the fact that we depart the 27th of June for Europe and return the 24th of July. This means that I am missing Canada Day for the first time since we moved here nearly 15 years ago. Needless to say, I am rather displeased. BOO. I’m going to be a little surly here, just because I can. I am missing several birthdays, Warped Tour (one of the best lineups to date), Bluesfest and Canada Day. I’m pretty sure my parents scheduled this in July intentionally, despite my many protests. In all fairness, I do get to see some awesome stuff in Italy (LEANING TOWER OF PISA, COLISEUM, WUT), wander the Adriatic coast (oh baby – Splicani, moji ste) and eat my weight in perfectly-seasoned meat (mmmcevapi) while hanging out with my grandparents…the only issue is the fact that I have to deal with my fam for a full month. Ughhh. Driving. Long. Distances. Brother. Mother. DOOM.

I have questionable priorities in life; deal with it.

In any case, I fully intend on keeping you guys informed of all the insanity throughout, as there is bound to be some form of natural disaster waiting in the wings. Or perhaps we may get caught up in the Great Pasta War of 2009…who knows?

Posso avere uno espresso con panna, per favore?

…that silly little quiz-thing.

So, I’ve done one of these every single year since I was 13, (I think, maybe even younger) and even though it’s kind of ridiculous, I’m going to do one this year! For old times’ sake. Reading over my answers from last year is kinda fun, though!

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?:
Um, drank enough to say things like, “I’m going to go walk off ‘the drunk,’ guys” and “The heat, it’s just *waves hands towards face* RISING.” I spray painted snow (haha, SUCK IT, EXAMZ), tried cookie dough for the first time, cooked a full meal (i.e. involving meat) and got a job/quit it!

Well, this is going to be a fun one! I got kissed for the first time, drove on the highway, tried out fitness classes, smoked up…and got my face mauled by a guy friend. Man, the latter was bad times.

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?:
I didn’t make any…just cos I always break them. Oops.
Yeah, I don’t make any; I just have ever-changing goals throughout the year.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?:
Nope, not that I’m aware of…
Yes! My friend had a baby boy!

4. Did anyone close to you die?:
Nope, knock on wood.
Dodged that bullet for another year.

5. What countries did you visit?:
Croatia, Bosnia and Germany.
I only went to Montreal this year. Boo.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?:
Well, to be honest, a dude and some self-confidence.
More self-control.

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?:
There is no one date that sticks out impressively, but definitely the Alexis show (13.12.2007), my 19th birthday, and the two crazy nights at Eleni’s.
My 20th birthday, Warped, the day TREOS broke up…and that’s about it.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?:
Well, I managed to lose about 30 lbs from April to August…
Funny; did the same thing, only just from August to September.

9. What was your biggest failure?:
Gaining that weight and more back again. Oh, and organic chemistry.
Gaining it back (I hate my yo-yo weight), and trusting people too much.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?:
Yeah, I sprained my ankle, but other than that, just colds and such.
Holy crap, my life is so lame. I re-sprained that same ankle, nearly exactly a year later. I also added a thumb sprain to that.

11. What was the best thing you bought?:
My supras were my fave thing…and then they ended up annihilating themselves…I think, my Saosin booty shorts are up there. Actually, just all the CDs, show tickets and merch. It all rocked.
My Bench hoodie, CDs, show tickets, merch…yeah, pretty much. A few books here and there, as well.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?:
Umm…?
Yeah, ummm…?

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?:
A certain someone I don’t talk to anymore, and my brother’s.
Another certain someone I had a massive falling out with. My brother’s been okay this year, haha.

14. Where did most of your money go?:
Shows, merch, CDs and Starbucks. Oh man.
Food, shows, merch and CDs. I am SO predictable!

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?:
ALEXIS. The new TREOS album. Transformers. Our XBOX 360 and Halo. My new iPod. The ATL/BLG secret show. I tend to get excited a lot.
Um. Shows and albums. Clare coming back, finishing second year, starting third, my then-bf, life in general…

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?:
This is always so bloody hard. Um, I’ll go for albums first…

1. The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi – TREOS
2. So Wrong, It’s Right – All Time Low
3. Infinity On High – Fall Out Boy
4. Chase This Light – Jimmy Eat World
5. Saosin – Saosin

Songs:
1. Awakening – Switchfoot
2. Glass Danse – The Faint
3. There Is No Mathematics To Love and Loss – Anberlin
4. Dismantle.Repair – Anberlin
5. Pages – There For Tomorrow

…and the song that is currently taking over my life: A Cause des Garcons – Yelle ♥
MULLET, MULLET, WIN, FLEAS, FLEAS, WIN, WIN.

I think that this year has been dominated, once again, by TREOS, closely followed by Thrice and Cut Copy…and most recently, Lady Gaga and Moving Mountains.
Picking one song is actually impossible.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or hardened?: Hardened, for sure. Even more hardened…
ii. thinner or fatter?: Um, the same. Yeah, same.
iii. richer or poorer?: Richer…thanks, ‘Blaws. Richer, thanks to the Rog + coaching.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?:
Relaxed. Taken risks.
Relaxed, for sure.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?:
I wish I hadn’t stressed out as much and wasted my energy on people who didn’t deserve it.
Yep. I wish I had stressed and pined less.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?:
With friends and fam, cooking, baking, listening to music and eating.
Spent it the same way! =)

22. Did you fall in love in 2008?:
No, fell out, more like.
Nope.

23. How many one-night stands?:
None.
Same deal.

24. What was your favorite TV program?:
ONE TREE HILL, CSI, So You Think You Can Dance,’Allo ‘Allo, and Firefly.
BATTLESTAR FRACKIN GALACTICA, Red vs. Blue.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?:
Again, hate is a rough word, but some people that are douches aren’t in my life anymore, so it’s all good.
Same deal this year!

26. What was the best book/fanfic you read?:
1. Shoebox Project
2. I Am America, and So Can You
3. I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell

Jeff Moon – Nymphomation

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?:
OMG, Saosin. Holy fuck. Also, The Summer Obsession, All Time Low.
Moving Mountains, Emery, Family Force 5, 3OH!3, Lady Gaga, Metro Station, MGMT, Cut Copy, Scary Kids Scaring Kids, Take the Crown, We the Kings.

28. What did you want and get?:
A new iPod…and the XBOX 360 =)
A boy…

29. What did you want and not get?:
A dude. Sigh.
Complete control of my life. Although, that’s in my hands, rather than fate’s.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
TRANS-MOTHERFUCKING-FORMERS.
The Dark Knight. Hands down.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?:
I turned 19 and I went to Zaphod’s and Zak’s with my closest friends. It was SO AWESOME.
I turned 20, and hosted a black tie dinner at my house, followed by cocktails at Alex’s. There was so much hilarity with some of my best friends. Win.

32. What’s one thing that would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?:
*COUGH*A dude*COUGH* This is getting sad, isn’t it?
Having kept the weight off. Oh well.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?:
Trying to ditch the whole ‘man’ thing and embracing the fact I’m female and LOVE fashion.
Same as usual, really, just starting to up the class a bit.

34. What kept you sane?:
Music and a couple of select awesome people.
Yeah, same deal this year.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?:
Huh…I tend to not entirely focus on one individual. I kinda fangirled All Time Low. Mmmm…Zack.
Hmm…I didn’t really fancy any people that weren’t ‘real,’ so to speak.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?:
Politics, in general, piss me off…
The godforsaken coalition and Harper winning again.

37. Who did you miss?:
During the summer, my friends. Generally, my dad.
Clare, during the summer, and Carolyn.

38. Who was the best new person you met?:
Um, well, I just got to know a bunch of people a lot better…
Alain and Melina, for sure, followed closely by all the other veebs people.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:
Stop putting yourself second to everyone else.
You’re the one holding on to the reins.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
“…hey now, the past is told by those who win, my darling,
what matters is what hasn’t been.”

“There’s got to be more than this, I don’t want to just exist.”

…and that’s it! All in all, nothing to different occurred…same shit, different…year. Hah. The stuff that did change, though, all happened in the last month or so, pretty much. Weird.  It was a good year, though.

…the best of 2008!

I’m usually a complete failure at remembering these things, mainly because my sense of the length of a year is rather impaired. I can never remember whether something came out this year or last, and frequently, I buy albums years after their release, and watch shows way after they’ve finished. I don’t know. In any case, here is what I actually can remember from this year (in no particular order).

ALBUMS

1. Funeral for a Friend – Memory and Humanity

2. Senses Fail – Life is Not a Waiting Room

3. Anberlin – New Surrender

4. Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours

5. Thrice – The Alchemy Index, Vol. 3 + 4

6. Britney Spears – Circus

7. Lady Gaga – The Fame

8. Story of the Year – The Black Swan

9. Family Force 5 – Dance or Die

10. Forgive Durden – Razia’s Shadow

11. There for Tomorrow – S/T

Yeah, I’ve decided that 11 is an appropriate number…which makes me think of Red vs. Blue. Hahaha.

“There is no 11, you fucking WHORE!” – Church

TV

1. Red vs. Blue

2. Battlestar Galactica (forever the best show.)

3. Guy’s Big Bite

4. Manswers

SHOWS

1. July 12^th – Warped Tour; Story of the Year, Anberlin, 3OH!3, Just Surrender, We the Kings, Every Time I Die, Family Force 5, Cobra Starship

2. February 26^th – Cobra Starship, Metro Station, We the Kings, The Cab

3. September 3^rd – Fedstock; Alexisonfire

4. April 2^nd – Between the Buried and Me, Goetia, Lye By Mistake

MOVIES

1. The Dark Knight

2. Ironman

3. Role Models

4. Quantum of Solace

…and that’s it for my year-end lists. Writing out why I liked each one of these items would have taken me the better part of the rest of this year, so just take my word for it; shit’s awesome.