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Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

I created these little guys a while ago so I figured I better post ‘em now.

So, in high school I had a better-than-modest collection of four-leaf clovers. Finding my first was nothing short of magical, but the magic died a couple of years later when a new patch of clover grew, ALL with four leaves, directly next to the driveway of my parents’ house—I think because of some fertilizer. Some of the clovers were nearly two inches across, some had five leaves. I’ve lost my collection since moving out, and every time I go back home I forget to check for the patch. But I’m not not superstitious, you know, so I think I’ll start searching again.

I’ve been listening to a lot of different (for me) music lately—thanks to Pandora, which does tend to repeat itself after hours of playback—but after I’ve had enough of these guys I like to return to my own stuff in iTunes. Nothing like an ear vacation to make those same tired albums sound new again.

So anyway, yesterday, I noticed something about two of my most favorite messy-pretty songs:

“Stars” by The Clean

and

“Rising of the Sun” by The Rabble

The names of the bands and the titles of those songs are total opposites. Weird, huh. Also weird: The Clean are from New Zealand, as well as another band called The Rabble, but not this Rabble, who came from Canada in the ’60s.

I thought it was interesting! But then I’m pretty boring.

I know this will probably sound like one of those “you never needed it ’til they said you did” scam deals (Latisse, douching with Lysol), but ever since I started lotioning my armpits, I’ve been 200% more comfortable with myself! And I don’t mean stupid moisturizing deodorant; I mean regular body lotion. I’m less itchy, and shaving’s easier.

Does anybody else do this? It’s decadent.

Even though I don’t have an immediately obvious look-alike (other than my mom, according to anybody who sees us together for the first time (cashiers love us)), I’ve been compared to a lot of different ladies in my lifetime:

Winona Ryder
Laura Dern
Emily Deschanel
Penelope Cruz
Veronica Lake
Judy Collins
Princess Zelda

Pick your favorite!

I’d post photos, but I think we all know how different these six women and sprite are from each other. And while I can’t see myself in any of them, I’d say it’s Laura for the occasional horsiness, Emily for the monotonous vocal delivery, and Winona, Penelope, and the Princess for the brown eyes and impish features. Veronica Lake happened when I had a photo of her in my Facebook profile and people seemed to think I’d edited a photo of myself. As for a young Judy Collins, this is what my stepdad said yesterday. I may be a princess, but I’ll never be as ethereal as Judy.

I discovered a pretty good cure yesterday for feeling pathetic and it is this:

Put on your biggest sweatshirt. It should be chalky grey, ugly and formless, yet warm.

Go into the kitchen and get a sweet snack. I like ice cream in a cone, with nuts on top. A cone like this is especially significant to the occasion because the top is difficult to consume while the bottom is easy.

Listen to any version of “The Weight” you prefer (I like the one by Smith the most; you might enjoy the original) while eating your snack and doing nothing else. Repeat song as necessary.

By the time you are finished with the point of the cone, you should be feeling better. If not, just go ahead and eat another ice cream.

While I’ve managed to avoid most of the applications on Facebook, there’s one called Friend FAQ I couldn’t help but add. It sends a little notification to your menu whenever one of your friends answers a harmless Yes or No question about you, such as, “Is so-and-so reliable?” Sounds boring, but wouldn’t you like to know?

Anyway, you don’t even have to be using the application to receive a notification at first. If somebody answers a question about you, Friend FAQ acts as the siren in the night that urges you to join and see.

I’ve had six questions answered about me that I know of (if you want to hide the painful truth you can choose not to notify a person), and here they are:

Do you think that Jackie still sleeps with a teddy bear?
No

Do you think that Jackie is cute?
Yes

Is Jackie’s profile picture cute?
Yes

Do you think that Jackie has ever cheated on a test?
No

Do you think that Jackie parties too much?
No

Do you think that Jackie is greedy?
No

You need to “spend coins” in order to see which of your friends answered what, but I’m not about to collect any more fake money than I absolutely have to. (See, um: FarmVille.) So, I guess I’ll never know. But I can tell you that one of these answers is false!

It’s not the teddy bear one, though I do tend to cuddle up with my fists under my chin like a giant baby. It’s not that I’m greedy either, or that I party anymore on days other than holidays. The correct answer to the question in question is that I have indeed cheated on a test. I feel kind of bad about giving the wrong impression about myself (oh, and I feel bad about the cheating, too), but I guess that’s the point of cheating. My mom will probably flip.

I don’t need to write about this since I’ve posted about it everywhere else already, but I created a new weblog header yesterday so I might as well update with something today.

Anyway, I started a new project this year called Tree Association. It’s my own special version of those free association word games people and psychiatrists play, where you begin with one word (in my case, tree, because it rhymes with free—see how easy?) and make connections to new words. I plan to update every week with a new drawing, and if you have your own Tumblr you can follow my blog with the click of a button! (Otherwise, I don’t know, I guess you can try the RSS feed. Personally I still use bookmarks and visit one website at a time.)

I’ve come up with a pretty long list already so the associations aren’t necessarily fresh when I draw them, but while I was compiling the list I made sure to take no pauses. (After all, I think it’s better to relate a bunch of words all at once than it would be to actually do one per week.) So far tree has led to coral, coral has led to salt water, and salt water has led to tears which rhymes with gears. Isn’t my brain just fascinating?

For my last list I thought I’d feature five of my husband’s Small Things instead of my own:

1. Skating on a new box.

2. Not working at Rite-Aid.

3. Volkswagen Beetles from ‘66 and earlier.

4. Being debt-free. (He’s never been in debt, except to ME…)

5. “… and chicken.”

So there you have it, the five simple pleasures of a complex man.

It’s too bad I won’t be doing these updates in 2010, ’cause this weblog’s gonna be really quiet without them. Be sure to add me on Twitter or Facebook, and I’ll see you on the flip side!

(Oops… turns out this entry never published when I told it to.)

1. Rum balls.

2. Steaming some milk for coffee instead of just grabbing it from the fridge last-minute.

3. Chapstick.

4. Cuticle cream.

5. When every day feels like a Friday.

I’ve posted about ‘em before already, so here’s another online game I’ve been having fun with. It’s a slower-paced arcade-y thing called Fire Boy and Water Girl, and there are two characters that can either be moved simultaneously on different keys by two people, or one at a time by one lonely person whose husband doesn’t want to play with her. The players have to work together to collect diamonds while facing certain obstacles like levers and boulders and stuff (nothing too crazy). The most important rule is that fire and water can’t cross paths—yet for a while, I thought the characters themselves couldn’t touch each other, either, but then they did touch and nothing happened. So that makes it a little easier. Check it ouuut.