Who doesn't like the Eiffel Tower at night?

By the way, all of these shots were hand-held!  Take THAT!

Ahh, the glorious snow day!

So I was closing at the theater last night, knee deep in counting the safe and getting ready to leave when a fellow manager came in and told me that he had heard there was a good bit of snow all over North, East, and West Asheville, as well as down south in Hendersonville.  Of course the theater, being located in the black hole of the South Asheville/Biltmore Park area, didn't have much at that point.  I knew I didn't have to work today because I have classes at UNC-Asheville pretty much all day on Mondays, Wednesdays, and a few hours on Fridays.  Thus, I was hoping so badly for, not a delayed class schedule, but a true cancellation/snow day!

As I got in my car to drive home, I was indeed correct--not much snow in the black hole area, but it was still coming down pretty good and the wind was blowing like mad.  Damn, it was cold!  Got in my car.  The temperature read 14 degrees.  Was surprised that it was snowing at that temperature still.  Drove the 13 miles home on interstate 26.  The roads weren't bad, but a reduced speed limit was definitely in order.  Black ice is pretty dangerous around these here parts (commence laughing at my red neck attempt at a southern dialect) because you can't see it until it is too late.  Needless to say, I flashed my lights at a couple of 18-wheelers from down south who still felt the need to do 70 mph when the rest of the smart locals were doing 40. Dumbasses.  I thought about how I wanted them to end up in a ditch somewhere just to teach them a lesson, but of course, not actually hurting themselves or anyone else on the road in the process.  

Pulled into my complex drive with a slight bit of a slide from the Mini going up the hill.  She took the hill like a champ and I gave her a pat on the hatchback when I exited.  Made it up the stairway of doom (1st picture above).  It looked like the stairway of doom to me because I'm deathly afraid of walking on ice, and I was still very sore from the dumb back and split squats I did Monday morning in my weight training class.  Being less sure-footed than normal made me extra edgy when making my ascent.  Yay for handrails and an old fashioned white-knuckled grip!

So I woke up early this morning (7am) to make the call to the school weather hotline, all the while my fingers crossed for a total day class cancellation.  BINGO! My luck was good.  Crawled back between the cozy flannel sheets and though about how I shouldn't waste this day off by sleeping it away.  Put on a sweatshirt, pants, socks, and made my way down the stairs to the living room.  Put on a scarf, hat, coat, and shoes and took my camera for a walk.  Alas, it was a brief walk!  After about a dozen shots my  hands were hurting from the cold.  Even the baby snow brontosaurus was cold (last picture above)!

So now I sit here writing this blog on my happy day off from school.  My coffee is good, my feet are warm, and my cat keeps butting his head against my leg in an attempt to get me to pet him.  Guess I will actually be good today and do some reading.  Tibetan Buddhism for the win!  Then a nap, perhaps.  I have selective reading narcolepsy.  It should be interesting to see how many pages I can get through...

--Susan 

Old Friends/Good Times/Good Music

So I was recently able to catch back up with a dear old friend of mine from back in my glorious goth days. (laughs) A fellow frequent friendly flier of Einstein A Go-Go (say that one 10 times fast), we shared good times and music together in the form of dancing, DJ'ing, and later playing music together in a shoegaze band called Innerscarlet.  

Innerscarlet (1994) was a long way away from doing the industrial stomp with dear old Matt, or at least to the tunes he was playing for me while I stomped away.  A long with other band members, Geoff Ellis, Jaysun Hensley, and Jason Parker, there was enough testosterone for one girl to contend with to last a lifetime!  There were times when I would have willingly gone to jail if I could have just strangled the lot of 'em, well, except for Geoff, he was my fellow voice of reason in the group, but there were times (so it seemed) when Jason would get out of bed just to enjoy the fact that he could later annoy the shit out of me at some point during the day.

The music was good, I must say.  With Matt Hopkins behind the steering wheel, we rarely went wrong.  Well, except for the incessant live performances where at least one of the hundred patch cords between four of us had a short in it somewhere we could never find...

So, if you haven't had a chance to check out my flickr account in a while, please do so.  The link is to your right.  I snagged some photos from Matt's MySpace page that Jason had stashed somewhere in the depths of nostalgia.  Thanks to Jason for resurrecting those photos!

Thanks to the boys for being part of a memorable time of my life!!

My First Blog

Well, hello there and welcome to my new blog.  Hopefully I won't bore the crap out of you often, but sometimes would be just fine with me.  We all need a little boredom to make us appreciate the less boring times we may have in life.

I'd like to start off by wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas.

I'm on my own this evening.  It feels strange, but I have my trusty pal, Potsie, by my side.  I'm hoping the new year will bring lots of interesting and new things to experience.

Welcome!