I am the biggest music snot around, and it pains me to admit this, but my brother Max's band, Westave, is good. Like, actually really good. I am listening to them practice through the wall that divides out apartment (like a creeper), and they are killin' it. So. Just wanted to let you know that, because it might be a while before I'm man enough to tell him.

0- My Christmas tree is up. It's tiny, but it's awesome. I really want to wrap my presents and put them underneath, but it's too early. If I do this now, I'll have nothing left to do closer to Christmas. And Jamie will open them all and peek.

00- Everyone around me has had H1N1, but I have remained immune. WHY OH WHY? No idea, but at least 8 people I've been in constant, close contact with have had it and I'm skipping through unscathed. So far. Let's hope this keeps up.

000- On the bad side of things: I have been measuring the amount of money I have left 'til pay day in Trips to McDonald's. Ew, but at the same time, yummmmmmmm.

0000- I find that I sound like a 20 year old guy when I'm talking. This is mostly because I hang out with my brothers are their friends quite often, and when I do, they talk ridiculously.

Some words from my vocabulary, all picked up from my brothers, that I use quite often:

Dummied: fucked over. Usage: "you dummied me hard!", "don't dummy me!", "you totally just got dummied".

Punched: I want to punch you/her/that in the face. Usage: "She said I was ugly? PUNCHED."

Legend: legendary, but you don't finish the word. Usually said in a high-ish voice, or with awe. Usage: "Did you see that solo Garrett Mason just pulled off? LEGEND", "that was a legend movie we just watched", "these are some legend Christmas decorations".

Jackson/Johnson: you can use this in pretty much any case, but most often to substitute for the word "thing". My brothers use these words constantly, for names, things, anything. Useage #1: "These are some good chicken johnsons" (chicken nuggets), "you are such a fail jackson!". Usage #2: randomly tacked on at the end or in the middle of sentences, "that is a nice Christmas tree johnson!" or "let's go out the fire jackson escape".

My Dad likes to tell me stories of his misspent stoner youth. One of my alltime favorites is a story about when the Tom Petty album Damn the Torpedoes was released, he and his friends threw a 24 hour party where they just all locked themselves in a house with the rule that nobody could leave until a certain time, and they listened to the record over and over again and got fucked up. Dad still can't hear Here Comes My Girl without grinning his face off, because he says at this party, whenever the song's intro started up, everyone would raise their glasses for a moment of silence for the awesomeness that is music. This was 6 years before I was born, people.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because I could see me doing this with The Young Veins' new album. I want it. I am sitting here after having listened to The Other Girl and making the biggest gimmie hands of life. I want to hear this album. I mourn the days of listening parties. I fear that any I try to have would morph quickly into ceilidhs, because we're really not capable of letting music happen without picking up the various instruments that are lying around. I've got like, three guitars and a cajon and a bunch of random harmonicas and tambourines right here in this very kitchen that I can see by turning my head slightly to the left, and we really can't be here in group form without just, like. Accidentally picking something up. So listening parties would just... not work.

Everything Ryan Ross is doing press-wise lately is exciting me. I love it when he proves to people that he's actually a nice guy, because he is, dudes. He's got these insane characterizations that we all like to laugh about and make fun of and wonder about, but he really is a nice guy.

Tonight is Blues Society again, and this time it's Braille Blues Daddy Bryan Lee and his band. I don't know much about him but that he's from New Orleans. Should be a great time, but I'm feeling like more sleep is essential, even though I just got up at 3pm. I bet I would feel at least 30% more ready for a smoky environment, drinks and some blues if I had a shower. I'm hoping for a mellow night.

... my Dad totally just fangirled Kristin Chenoweth to me. I didn't even think he knew who she was, and he was all like, "did you see that tiny blonde girl from Pushing Daisies on Glee last week? SHE WAS AMAZING, WOW." HA. Dad. You win.

I stayed home tonight, just like last night. I drank some tea and watched movies with Jamie. Last night, Max came over and we chatted about blues, and classic blues, and what our classic favorites are. And delta blues vs. like, show band style. And it was quite a lot of fun. I'm very dull this weekend.

Wednesday, day off! Nnnggg, days off are amazing. Remember back there a little while when I worked for half a year with no days off? Not even a fucking Saturday or Sunday, but a full half a year without a single day off, and 10-12 hours a day? YES I REMEMBER THAT. And it was LAME. Whenever it comes to a weekend and I don't have to get up to an alarm, I still get a sense of wonder. AND NOW, here I am A WEDNESDAY and I have the day off. This is amazing.

I really want to do up the beach, it's beautiful out, but I'm waiting for my mother to call me, because I kinda wanna hang with her and she said we could possibly do something. But if she's a no-go, I'm totally hitting the actualfax beach.

I'm so psyched to see Half-Blood Prince, especially with all these review/reaction posts flooding in. Maybe my mother and I could do that.

DAY OFF. Shower time.

The best part of morning is when you get up and shower, and you're sitting there, all showered, drinking some juice, when you realize that you've got half an hour to kill. ♥ I love it.

Facts about right now:
1. I am going to wear my new Clandestine hoodie today. It's the plaid one.
2. My little brother Johnny is sleeping in my spare room, because he visited his girlfriend last night.
3. shirethief, butystherumgone and I are having a movie night tonight. We're gonna have Chinese, too.
4. I'm going to see Bon Jovi and, more importantly, Bachman and Cummings in two days.
5. I'm having a large party tomorrow at my beach. We're gonna see if we can beat last year's 175 people.
6. Last night while watching repeats of "Q" with Jion Gomeshi, I wanted to punch Billy Bob Thornton in the face. Here's a link. Honestly, GET OVER YOURSELF. You can see his band members just go, oh here we go. Seriously, you are a dick, man.

I have many brothers, haha.

Last year at this time of year, my brother Jamie went to the prom and I posted pictures of him doing so.

This year, it was Max's turn. My brothers are all growing up!

( Max's colour is green. True Slytherins, right on. )

Livejournal, you are failing me with the entertainment this Sunday night. I can only assume that everyone is staring wide-eyed at their screens, willing Big Bang to magically start early. I mean, that's what I've been doing. It's like Christmas Eve around here. Twas the nigh before Big Bang.." come on someone, write that.

I am re-reading Margaret Trudeau's autobiography, the one published in '79. I was in love with it when I was younger, but reading it now, I can't imagine I understood even half of it at the time. It's absolutely fascinating. In a few sentences, she's a young bourgeoisie-rejected, wanna-be hippie from Vancouver going through a quarter-life crisis when she's suddenly courted and sought-after by the coolest Prime Minister of Canada. It's like less-pretentious Beat, wherein the lead character is actually human and constantly questions whether she should be doing what she is. It's completely realistic and very relate-able. Aside from, well, you know. How she marries the Prime Minister. And then after all that, she falls in with the bad kids, Ron Wood and Mick Jagger.

I slept at the Shire, at the beach, last night, and drank a lot. It was a very good time, but we all almost froze to death afterwards. It's much too cold for June. Earlier on Saturday I drove to Truro and went to a flea market with my father and step-mother, and then we drove to Parrsboro (reminded me of you, andi_horton) and around Advocate Harbour (which reminded me of shirethief and our adventures with Australian!Brad). It was very relaxing, and very pretty.

I've also been moving more and more of my things into my new place. Pictures will come shortly, precious. I can't move in there until there is internet. It might kill me.

Spotted on the Facebook event wall of my gig this Saturday:

Joey: i would for sure!! but i cant fuck!
Jamie: maybe you should have put a period or comma or something after cant joe...

My uncle Johnny just passed away. He was handsome, a poet, a hippie and the crankiest person I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. But he loved me, and he loved everyone, despite his act.

He loved music, especially Dylan and Leonard Cohen. He quoted both often. He loved the outdoors.

I introduced twithcy_giraffe and another friend of ours to him once, and they're conversation went something like this:

Johnny: yeah, my son in law's in a band, I hate 'em.
Girls: WTF?
Johnny: Oh, I don't mean I hate him, I mean I hate the band. If I hated him, he'd be dead. Everyone I ever didn't like is now dead. *evil, old man laugh*

I also believe he smoked up with them once, or offered to (at Minglewood, I think?).

He also once came to the beach that we owned, walked around barefoot the entire few days he was there, tried to shower in the waterfall and fell and broke his foot. His little brother Brian then wrote a song about him, which is the nonsensical title of this post.

In any case, I'm gonna miss him so much, especially the way he said my name: a strange sort of "Ginny" that was still Ginny, but leaned more to the side of Jenny. My mother is heartbroken, since she'd been with him at the hospital all day and he'd been up walking and cranking at her earlier. He died of complications from his hemochromatosis; he was on the list for a liver donation.

In his honour, I leave you with this:

Living on the road my friend, was gonna keep you free and clean. Now you wear your skin like iron, your breath's as hard as kerosene.
You weren't your mama's only boy, but her favorite one it seems.
She began to cry when you said goodbye and sank into your dreams.

- Townes Van Zandt

I'm spending the night at the father's place. Once again, I reiterate about the coziness and the comfort thing that are present at my Dad's that can't be found at my mother's place.

- stocked fridge vs. maybe some cereal
- clean floors vs. floors covered in clothing, cds and dirt tracked in from the street*
- doting father who likes to spoil his little girl vs. mother who knows me too well
- constant good music (currently Sly and the Family Stone's Stand!) vs. "Ginny, turn that down!"
- Mikey and Gollum (my cats) and Jack and Molly (the dogs) vs. Pea, Mom's Furby.

* very crucial to a girl who likes to lay on floors constantly

The movie Elizabethtown is very underrated by it's target audience. Not by critics, because I mean, a Crowe movie is what it is, but by fans. Were the expectations just too high? I dunno, but I love it all, from Orlando's accent (totally works for him!) to Susan's general presence in the movie, And especially, the random Almost Famous references.

I'm upstairs on my laptop, and mom is downstairs on her computer, and I just got a facebook message that says "hey go to sleep so the rabbit can come."

*headdesk*

1. Whenever I want to feel better about myself, I play a key Hannah Montana tune (read: Rockstar, We've Got The Party With Us or Make Some Noise, all of which I learned while aboard the ship), and I sing along with it. Loudly. Because she's just sooooo inspiring (can you hear it? Can ya? That's correct, the sar-ist of the casms), or because it's easy to sing along, I sound decent without trying and it makes me feel great. You decide.

2. Having a house full of four teenage brothers is extremely convenient when looking around for a hoodie to grab when you're going out the door. They are draped across every chair, strewn over every surface, and they are all naturally the sort of hoodies which are very cool to be seen wearing.

3. Dear Weather Gods: please, yes, keep pounding me with freezing rain. It's very, very nice for when I'm trying to drive to and from work. It's been almost 24 hours now, lighten up already.

4. Dear Weather Gods: well, I suppose. Thank you for not sending the 40 more centimeters of snow you promised. ♥ LOVE/HATE.

5. I just bought quite a bunch of things from themerchbooth. I am addicted to buying things online. butystherumgone gave up her Visa for lent. I probably should have done the same with my PayPal, but I CAN'T.

6. Yesterday I bought new bras, a new hair dryer, some new mascara and Jason Mraz's new cd (on which I dig Coyotes), and a Jackson Browne greatest hits on a trip to the mall (on which I dig everythinggggg).

7. In case anyone was wondering, CHRIS LOWELL I STILL WANT TO MARRY YOU. You and Ed. We can all be a wonderful polygamous-threesome-whatever-married couple. WE CAN NOT BE DEFINED. WE REJECT YOUR TRADITIONAL VALUES AND ARE IN LOVE.

My dad just refuses to watch The Dark Knight. He loves action movies, he loves comic books movies, and yet. We sat here for twenty minutes trying to pick a movie to watch now, and he just skipped over it a million times. Ugh, frustrating.

(We decided on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Shiaaaaaaaaaaa.)

ETA: and then he changed his mind again, and we are watching... get this... The Devil Wears Prada. Hahahaha, wtf father.)

I'm awake because I'm going back to work today, at the same daycare I worked at before I left for cruise ship paradise. Yeah.

So there's like, Ryan/Keltie drama. I thought for a long time about whether or not to mention it. I mean, like, it's weird that people know about this bit of their life. (I mean, assuming that it's even true.) Keltie does it to herself really, if she posts about it in her blog, such a public forum. But then I got to thinking, if I ever met them in the future, I'd have to be like, oh yeah, I blogged and actually claimed an interest in your very personal love life, isn't that creepy as fuck? But then I thought, not blogging about it or blogging about how I wasn't gonna blog about it would be very fake of me, since I am interested. So, yes, there, I've said it. I am interested in, like, when Ryan and the boys go shopping and buy carpets, so why on earth wouldn't I be interested in his love life?

When I'm speaking to my mother, when she asks me things, etc, I always have to answer her twice. Once, and then again afterwards to take the venom out of my voice. It's something I'm working on.

Max: (about Joey having joined the army)

Turn into a robot,
you are just a drone,
Baby girl, baby girl,
get home.

Nobody wants to get away from here
back to DC you will... steer.

(you can find this fabulous freestyle on facebook, in a video.)

(PS: Jamie broke up with the Beatles.)

1. Yesterday was the first day of our Christmas cruise. The rabbi got on board. The priest? Didn't. So we have very, vry upset guests. Like, I was yelled at several times. Uh oh. No priest.

2. I watched Muppet's Christmas Carol yesterday for the first time this Christmas. Did I cry? Yes, it's possible.

3. I'm already counting down to February 1st. That's when I'm off this ship. I mean, yes, I love my friends, but damn it, I miss home. I miss sleeping. I miss not working.

4. Oh! I forgot to tell you that I was in quarantine in my Cabin for 48 hours because I had G.I. It's fun, let me assure you. When that happened, I wished I was back at work.

5. My boss is fighting for us, trying to get us four hours off on Christmas afternoon. Cross your fingers for me!

6. I got a Christmas card from my brother Max that had magazine clippings of random old men and like, trees and an apple. And it said "PS: in case you're wondering why I selected some of the pictures for this card, you don't have to be an astronomer to appreciate the stars."

background information for this story: my brother, Jamie, has a new girlfriend. Her name is Gulshan. She's from England. My brother Max recently went to visit Jamie, and met her for the first time.

Jamie: hey Max, this is my new girlfriend, Gulshan.
Max: *blink* your name is... what?
Gulshan: It's Gulshan.
Max: Dolphin?
Jamie: yes, of course her name is Dolphin.
Gulshan: no, it's... I'm Gulshan, my name is Gulshan.
Max: ... right, well, since there's no way I'll be pronouncing that any time soon, I'm just gonna call you The Beatles.

... and he does. He calls her "the Beatles". I miss that little dumbass.

1. Okay, so the first section of this post is going to be concerning my mother and her good work out there on the front lines of my party scene while I'm at sea. I recieved some very interesting emails:

From Amy:

"gin, you wont believe what just happened...your mom was just in my room, hammered & puking in a bucket...and yes she couldnt move...and yes, i then escorted both your mom and alan safely to their hotel for the evening :) there was some confusion and she said, ohh tell ginny...ohhh you better not tell ginny....so here i am, telling you..."

From Josh:

ginny i love and miss you. Your family graced me with their presence last night and we all got smashed, it was amazing but of course not the same without you. hope all is well on the high seas. love Josh a.k.a wheels

My mother's response to it all:

Hey, It must have been food poisoning! I was quite ill but only had a couple of caesars. They saved my life but I kept Amy's bucket, I needed it to come home with on Sunday. All in all it was one of the worst nights ever, and Sunday too.

My mother, ladies and gentleman. Oh how I miss her.


2. I'm having some weird guy drama. Things are so fucked up here. I've gone from unattractive rockstar girl at home, to goddess. Because of my nationality/hair colour/gender. It's so fucked up on ships, because everyone is lonely and everyone is here, and it's so many cultures mixed in together that rules don't exist. Anyways, the most recent drama involves this guy from Peru... who is very cute, but who has slept with at least two other girls I know. He's very good at his game, and is somehow making me feel so bad for avoiding and rejecting him. It's all, why don't you call? I waited for you to call! I just want to get to know you, you're beautiful, you're beautiful. I just really don't know how to react to it. But then again, I've never been called beautiful before. Even by someone who's bullshitting. Anyways, I've been... playing with the idea of just going with it. Except today, finally, I was like, no, this is ridiculous, because yesterday I was supposed to call him and didn't because I got on an awesome catamaran excursion, and he got all pissed off. So when he confronted me about it, about 20 minutes ago, I was like, you know what, I'm going. And left. And came here. So there you go.

3. I just sent my pay to my father, who then deposited it for me, and now I have money in the bank. Which means I can buy things, like that new multiple choice Fall Out Boy t-shirt Pete's got on his blog. How long do I have to wait before getting one of those? And if it's merch, and someone's going to a show, could I trouble someone to pick one up for me?

4. I feel so out of it right now. Today, I had Port Zone, which is basically where you work from 9-5, and don't get to leave the ship. That's the bad thing about PZ, but the good thing is that you have all night off afterwards. Well, at 5, I went back to my cabin and fell asleep. Woke up at 8:30pm. And I'm still tired, and I feel that shitty kind of way you feel when you make yourself get up, but I couldn't go to sleep then, or I'd have been up at 4 this morning with nothing to do. So I took a walk around the ship to try and find some of my friends, but they're all either at work, or in some unknown place, because they are mia. (They fly like paper, get high like planes?) So now I'm a) feeling shitty and b) bored as hell. But I can't go back to bed yet.