Sometimes I crack myself up

So I was going through some old emails, and I found this nugget, on the day Tim Russert passed away:

Me and ol’ Tim had a bit of a powwow this morning while he was on his way upstairs. We’re even stevens, baby. We shared a secret handshake that lasted at least seven minutes and included the watusi.

I still find this funny. I don’t know why.

8th Show of 2009: Iron & Wine

Iron & Wine, originally uploaded by maceelaine.

On May 7th, Jenn and I headed over to the Swedish American Hall to see Iron & Wine.

This was more or less the perfect week day show. I love the SAH, full of space and light and seats. The show started at 7:30 with the Magic Leaves, who sound like a hippy jam band but were amazing. Mellow and harmonic, I’d definitely like to see them again. By the time they finished their set, we could still see the fading sun out the skylights.

Iron & Wine was engaging, hilarious, and an amazing musician. It takes a special person to be able to fill an entire stage solo. I didn’t even take my eyes off him the whole night. I was only partially familiar with his work, and now I am a certified fan.

Because I am old, I was truly excited that the show was done by ten. It gave me plenty of time to go home and relax and ruminate on the awesomeness.

If you’re interested in hearing the concert, you can purchase it for cheap HERE.  Brilliant idea, by the way.

Is it better to forget?

So before there was Tumblr, before there was LiveJournal, there was Diaryland. I joined in 1999, when the Internet was (for me) shiny and new and there was nowhere to leave comments. I kept the diary to semi-publicly air my dirty laundry, and to kvetch about things that weren’t working in my life, knowing that there was a limited audience of people who were reading it.

I’m not going to link to it here. Those industrious people who’ve known me a long time could probably go and find it, but I’m not sure it’s worth it. Because here’s the thing: it’s horrible. It’s the mopey ranting of a 21 year old who needed to vent somewhere and kill time working in the computer center of her college. Having rediscovered it recently, I read every single post and it depressed the hell out of me.

What struck me most was how many things I didn’t remember. Many of them dusted off long-stored feelings that hadn’t seen light of day for quite some time. And many seemed completely new to me, even though I lived them. And it was kind of shocking. I had to spend about two days processing everything I had read before I could even talk to anyone about it. And then I had to wonder: is any of it worth remembering? What good is it to dredge up fears, fights and feelings from ten years ago?

I don’t have any simple answers. Do you? How much do you remember?