Pets or meat.

First off, custom slaughtering.



TEXAS.

Secondly, Tucumcari might the sleepiest town in the world. I looked down the street on a Friday night at 10:00 and every house was dark.

My main reason for going out to Tucumcari was to drive my dad to Pampa so he could get his Camaro, which he trusts no one else to drive. We did jazz on Thursday and stopped at the awesome Cadillac Ranch on the way there. PICTUREZ.






Holla! Jazz hands! (For the record, I had to crop my dad’s thumb out of the top of that.)

Other than that excursion, I hung out, small town style, and practiced that whole “big sister” thing, a role I’ve found myself really into. It’s nice to take your little sisters to the dinosaur museum and your little brother to the one screen movie theater.

ON THAT NOTE… me and Chase went to a 7:00 movie on a Friday night. Okay, in Raton, that was like Chaos Central. Literally, hundreds of children breaking stuff, making out, and pulling hair. Me and Chase were the youngest people there, in fact, probably the only people under 50 in the room. So, watching Bourne with old people is funny; the crowd had no reaction, whatsoever, until the very end, when one dude started clapping lightly, realized no one else was going to, and stopped.

Speaking of funny… Mclovin, you’re my one and only.


Here’s a few samples of me trying desperately to rip off Terrence Moore.


Also, it wasn’t that difficult to make Tucumcari look post-apocalyptic.


And I would like a grain silo.



GOOD NEWS. I get to care for a Rufus and a Lucy next week, which means I'll be Burque for a whole lotta nights! BAD NEWS. I'm bartending Fall Crawl. :(

I've been really anxious and overly emotional these past few weeks. Not quite sure what's up, probably some kind of alignment issue, but I cry whenever there's anything emotional AT ALL on TV. That includes the Disney Channel. (???) Going to Tucumcari was nice and relaxing, it felt like I banished a lot of that. But, nope. It followed me.

Anyone wanna go drink with me in Moriaty on Friday night? I'll either get raped or shanked. Maybe both. Come see!

In case you were wondering...

My dog's bald spot is growing back in nicely.

Hearing the recording of Ruby Soho from the Albuquerque show in August never fails to make my day completely amazing. Still, it's been over a year. I can hear the exact moment when I got my second orange pick. Maybe it’ll have the same effect for you.

Mi vida loca.

It was pretty much the most eventful night of my night last night.

1. I ended up working security at the bar because one of our security guards showed up to work 2 hours late and completely hammered. Thank you.

2. We had a wedding at the El Rey, at which one of the groomsmen got so smashed that it took two security guards, all the other groomsman, and the groom to drag him outside, kicking and punching the whole way.

3. A very short and extremely androgynous girl got wasted at the bar. It took two equally short and androgynous friends of hers to carry her outside.

4. Some poor kid, who I'm assuming was at the 12 Step Rebels show at the L-Pad, got all four of his tires slashed outside on 7th street.

5. I get a text from Scott as we're closing up the bar saying, "You might appreciate this one, Cat. I just got into a fight at the Village Inn parking lot, and now my face is bleeding. Isn't this the best night ever?" Apparently, 3 dudes just decided that Scott was "in their way" and that his face needed to be planted in a car window. All of us at the bar were so frustrated and dilerious that we were ready to head down to the Village Inn and destory, but I guess the cops were inside and handled things.

To recover, today I ate Indian food for lunch, took a 3 hour nap, then ate Cracker Barrel for dinner. Right now, I'm watching Kenneth's gnome ride a mechinal chicken. Tomorrow, I'm adventuring to the Social Security office for the new card (what disaster!) and Tuesday I'm going to Tucumcari/Pampa to help my dad finish moving. Getting out of town, even if it's just to Tucumcari, sounds lovely.

Brick, where'd you get a hand grenade?

Let’s talk about Cat’s recent fan-girl obsessions.



First off, I LOVE JASON BOURNE. He’s really a recent discovery. Much like I found X-Men after the third movie, the release of the third movie made me think, “Hey, those were okay movies. I should go re-watch the first two.” In doing so, I’ve fallen in love.

Jason Bourne, as a character, is just precious, like a child. The loss of his memory made him so infantile and through the movies and the books, you watch this tough guy grow up, really. That’s amazing: seeing I’M A MAN acting like a little boy. Not to mention the fact, he’s a PTSD victim in extreme, put through so much stress that he snaps. But, not a negative snap, a snap back into adolescence. I think we can see him as a statement about how tightly wound up American soldiers, in the Army, or in various secret programs you’re not supposed to know about, really are. He’s a mildly believable hero.



It's really a movie-Wolverine factor: a man can't remember his past, in which he probably wasn't a good person, but because of severe trauma, he wakes up a new man. It's that whole idea, a fresh beginning, only because you can't remember anything else, a re-birth, that is what makes it intriging to me, really.

But, what makes him really believable... he really exists. His actual life is just completely twisted, to the point where he's looking like a dual personality. I do wonder how David Webb feels about all this, his life the basis for millions of dollars worth of profit. That's really my one hangup with it. But, as a character, Jason Bourne/David Webb is fantastic.

Not only that, the field of action movies is flooding with “watch the American flag in the background” and “watch the white house blow up” (the government is now reading my blog… these movies have also made me paranoid). Sure, there’s action movies that question the involvement of American government, but these movie look at foreign policy and foreign presence at an extreme. The US government involved in the assassination of a foreign dictator?!? NEVER! This is where the "based on actual events" becomes so interesting.



They really can be read as very liberal action films, but that’s not why I like ‘em. Oh Jason Bourne, you’re my favorite tough guy.


MATT DAMON!


Secondly, Amy Winehouse. Oh. Amy Winehouse. What a delightful mess. I bought Back To Black a few weeks ago and it only took me one listen to know that she was amazingly talented, but also headed straight for crazy.



She’s like Lohan, but actually worth something. That album is pulled straight from Motown; it’s almost like the Supremes going dirty. And really, who didn’t want that?



Third on the list would be The Glass Castle, a fantastic little memoir written by Jeannette Walls. Her background is journalism, so her take on memoir is so unsentimental. I can’t decide if I loved it or if I hated it so much that I was completely intrigued by it. Not once does she ask for sympathy; she never used the phrase “I felt…” or “it made me feel like…”. I read it in a day, and I recommend you do the same.



These headphones are my new best friend. I actually got them a few months ago, with the purchase of Spring Chicken, my new iPod, but I kept having issues with the little silicone ear pieces falling off. I lost my last piece, while mowing for my mom a few days ago. So, today I went to the Bose website to order more and, amazingly, I'm not the only one who's had that issue. So, they've been sending out replacement ear pieces for free. WHAT. Who does that? Apparently, Bose does. So, you see, there is a reason to spend $99 on earbuds (aside from the best sound quality ever).

Oddly enough, I've also been fan-girling baseball. It might just be because of the anticipation of college football starting oh-so-soon, but I think it's a little bit more. The Rangers/Cubs game I went to, seeing Sammy Sosa hit that run, made me think a little bit more. I started researching this whole Home Run derby, Barry Bonds breaking Hank Aaron's record, the steriod allegations, etc. and it became a little consuming for a few days. I was watching Larry Kind with my mom, because we do that like the good little liberals we are, and Bill Maher was on. Someone asked him what he thought about Barry Bonds. He said steroids didn't ruin baseball, money did. And that made a whole lotta sense.

You wanna talk about purity of the game, going back to the days before drugs and booze, then players are probably going to have to start playing just because they want to, and not for $1 million just for suiting up. I may not know much about sports, but that's pretty clear.

Food wise, since we’ve covered the rest of the basics, I’ve been eating a lot of artichokes. The Smiths in Edgewood has them for $2.00. So, I’ve been driving down there, buying an artichoke, bringing back to my mom’s, boiling it, and eating it’s tastiness with lemon juice. It’s good for when I’m being snacky and really just want queso.

Searching for wifi in the East Mountains is a battle. The Moriaty Public Library has it for free, as all good libraries should, so I'm there right now. But, man, if the staff ever grumpy.

A la izquierda, a la izquierda.

Who just paid $2.95 to use the internet at the Edgewood McDonalds? THAT WOULD BE ME. RAGE.

There is NOTHING to do in Edgewood, in case you were curious. Other than visiting my new friend at the Movie Gallery, I never leave my mom's house. Which isn't really that bad, she's got the cable, more books than I know what to do with, and a huge backyard, perfect for mini-hikes. But still, it leaves much to be desired.

I feel like I've reverted back to high school. Living with my mom, sneaking around with my boyfriend, spending almost all free time at the video store... It's odd. Even my face is breaking out like mad (I blame Edgewood's tard water and lack of health insurance).

Have some pixel-eye-candy.

Go repealing with Sarebear as often as possible.



I had a great time. Even though I'm pretty sure I did the actual repealing wrong, as it hurt my hands a lot. When I told Paul, he said, "Well, you didn't die, so I think you did okay." Good point, Pavel. Me and Sara had a great time asking for the great Lord's salvation as we hiked up the mountain for about the 3rd time in 2 hours. And also when Paul was attempting to repeal down without being anchored to a tree. We asked Jesus to give him "some of them Hermes wings". I think Paul found it quite distracting, but he adores Sarebear too much to care.

This is my bus-stop from when I went to Mountainview Elementary.



I can't even tell you how many times Matt Humberstone pushed me off that damn rock.

I went back through my old neighborhood, as I lived in Edgewood til I was 8 and then moved to Raton. It was interesting, as it's grown a lot. Lots more yuppies and drug dealers. Edgewood's good at balancing those things. I remembered there being a giant puddle right across the street from my bus stop and begging my mom to drive through it. She never did, since the puddle never seemed to go away and neither of us knew what was actually underneath it.

Well, guess what. It's still there.



I don't know why, but seeing that made me really happy.

I love my kitty.



And my doggy.



Funny story about my dog: She's got really bad thyroid issues, something that makes her hair randomly fall out.

So, right now, my dog looks like a monk.



And, to twist the blade, my mom took her to a groomer to get some of hair shaved, thinking that the heat might be contributing to the irritation. Now, my mom's never really been the most rational person, but for some reason, the groomer convinced my mom to shave Billy Bob like a lion.

Ladies and gentleman, meet Friar Simba.

I don't think burrito is an ingredient, Kyle.

Probably the most exciting part of my week was the Billy Bob Thornton show at the El Rey. I spent the whole morning running around Billy Bob's costume person, which wasn't too bad. We did have the struggle of trying to find someone who could hem a pair of pants for BBT, himself. Every alteration/dry cleaning shop we went to looked at us like we were zombies ("You want that done today?!?!").

My afternoon consisted of picking up dry cleaning, laundry, and the infamous altered pants, alll for Billy Bob. I thought it was pretty damn funny. I didn't even meet him, but I drove around his pants all day. Much better story.

But, for the record, he's pretty short, about my height. But, everyone who actually dealt with him said he was nice.

I've been spending most of my time with my mom in the mountains, which really hasn't been by choice. The people who manage Kyle's apartments are nosey mother eff's and decided to tell Kyle's parents that I was living there. It wasn't quite true, as I have been spending nights with my mom, a few with Kenneth, etc. But, Kyle's parents pretty much flipped over the fact we were "living in sin" and banished me from ever staying there again. However, when Kyle told them we weren't having sex and he didn't see what the big deal was, they called him a liar. I normally don't like getting very personal about life-details on da blog, but DAMN if that doesn't make me grumpy.

So, away to the mountains I will go. It really is quite intoxicating; no light pollution, little contact with the outside world. It's also great to live with a dog again! But, the issue with staying with my mom is not only the gas to get back and forth from Burque to Edgewood, but her road is murder. And when it rains, it's pretty much unpassible. It was to the point last spring, when all the snow melted, that I seriously thought the national guard was going to have to airlift her outta there. It's okay right now, the sun is baking out all the moisture, but every time I see those big ol, grumpy clouds, I get pretty nervous.

The only person who even knows me in Edgewood is the guy who works at Movie Gallery. I've spent some quality time there the past few days. It's nice to not feel spied on.

I'm trying to figure out how to spend the next few months. A good friend asked me to take pictures at her wedding, something I'm actually really, really, really excited about; to the point where I'm actually vamping up a photography portfolio. So, I'm thinking about staying here, trying to put my Media Arts degree to use and find some production work. But, a big part me just wants to get the freak OUT and into Canada already. If I can't find production work, then I'll probably just take my chances and get outta here without much money. But, if I do, I'm here til October.

Words today, pictures soon.