I cursed the neighbors to our left with fast-acting pancreatic cancer this morning. There I was, sleeping soundly, when the unmistakable thump of really loud bass started radiating through the wall and across the floor. I got up and gave the wall a wallop or three and lay back down. When that didn�t work, I did it again, finally successful. I wanted to leave a note underneath their door when I left to bring Luke to work, but I think anything remotely articulate would be lost on them. I don�t understand how they can listen to the same song quite so loudly time after time. They were playing it again just as we were about to leave. I hate having neighbors that share a wall.

The funny part about having neighbors, though, is that sometimes you collide with the unexpectedly in the hallway. As we were leaving, I was behind Luke on the stairwell and he decided to jump the last three or so. Next thing I knew, I heard Luke yelling, �Aaah!� When I made it the rest of the way down the stairs, he was making sure the neighbor he had nearly run into was okay, saying that the expression on the neighbor�s face was the mort terrified he�d ever seen anyone before. The neighbor was laughing and let us go out the door first. As we drove off, Luke gave the guy a wave and he flashed the peace sign. It was a funny way to meet a neighbor for the first time.

Today is my grandma�s birthday and I have to be sure to call her before the day is out. On this day last year, we were at Luke�s grandma�s waiting for Luke�s great grandpa to die. I was hoping to be home for this day this year, it being the third birthday of hers I�ve missed in a row, but that�s not a possibility at this point. I�m hoping that after the fiasco of a couple of weeks ago, my dad didn�t tell Gram about it. I really don�t need the Spanish Inquisition about such things right now.

As far as weather updates go, the bank clock around the corner read 94. What the shit is this? The air feels like you�re being hit in the head with a sock full of quarters and sweat from every pore, pores you didn�t even know existed, is an absolute given.

Apart from having utterly obnoxious neighbors, I slept really well. Luke and I watched an episode of Buffy when he got home (I waited for him), showered, and read for a bit before going to sleep. The cat, it would seem, has been crafting his stealth skills lately because I turned over to give Luke a goodnight hug and kiss to find that when I was back, the cat had made himself more than comfortable on my pillow. I rearranged him a bit so that I could have room enough for adequate sleeping. He didn�t bother me until around 5am, at which point he got the boot.

Luke is having me download stuff by Damien Rice for him. Apparently, it was on the overhead last night while he was working and he was told by two coworkers that his O is one of the best albums of the year. I�m listening to the first one I managed to get right now and it�s pretty good. If I can muster the patience, I am going to try and download the entire album. Steve Burns, of Blue�s Clues fame, released his album Songs for Dustmites this week. We�ve known about the album for at least a year, having perused his site. He worked in conjunction with some of the guys from the Flaming Lips and I liked what he had from the start. The only problem is that B&N got in one copy, just one, and it had been previously reserved for one of Luke�s coworkers, thus making it impossible for us to nab. I think he�s going to ask that she burn it for us, though. So far, what�s been released officially sounds a little different from what he originally had, but it�s still good.

So, yes, music, books, and Buffy have been very prominent in my life lately. Music is a lifeline for me, like it is for so many people, and I am a complete whore for new sounds. I just wish I were able to get out and see live music more often. I used to be able to see a handful of bands for not much money and it was so worth whatever it took to get there, but it seems like the music scene of that sort is dead around here. The last time I saw a concert was The Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players and I had never even heard them previously. It wasn�t something we otherwise would have gone to had M&G not had an extra ticket, so I wasn�t too excited about it. Yes, I bought a t-shirt, but that was because it�s cool, not because I have a huge loyalty to them. Before long, little Rachel is going to get fed up with being toted around the country and she�s going to want to stop. I�ve been the child who is carted about, forced to sit through sound checks, and fall asleep on the soft bass guitar cases while the music happened around me and it can be a serious bore. Of course, growing up with a musician was not my choice, either. He is the reason I am only now just warming up to blues again. For the longest time, just the name Robert Johnson or Muddy Waters made me shudder, hating every syllable because it reminded me of the man that spent so many years belittling me, hurting me just because he could. Now that I have such distance between who I was then and who I am now, not to mention the considerable distance between that particular man (not my dad) and myself, I am able to at least tolerate it. I�m not a fan by any measure, but I won�t gag.

What I find to be particularly interesting about me is my wide-ranging tastes in ear candy. I can�t even compile a comprehensive list of genres that I enjoy because it�s all too long and would take up page after listed page. I know that my upbringing has a hand in it, to be sure, but I enjoy things that would never even have been considered to be listenable when I was younger. I comb the radio stations for things that might be good; I read (the good) music magazines voraciously (they, BUST, and the cooking ones seem to be the only ones out there that aren�t chock full of messages that women should loathe themselves and that men should ogle), and I have access to the internet, so I can download things that I�ve never known of before without fear of having wasted my money.