gwen stefani's engaged!

i've been catching up on my reading.

let me specify, lest you come under the misconception that i'm using my free time to catch up on the classics- dostoevsky, boccaccio, dr. seuss. you see, when i was packing for this trip, i surveyed the piles around my room and thought to myself, "how can i clean up part of this heap and wind up with more luggage space for the return trip than i started with?" my eyes stopped upon the leaning tower of magazines....and just at that moment, several carefully aged issues of rolling stone and details (before the overhaul) slid off the top of the heap and onto my foot. i took this as a hint (i'm sure mama was behind this one somehow), and shoved these volunteers into my suitcase.

since today was a low-key day, i flipped through my magazines and caught up on various tidbits. before i throw them into the recycling bin, let me enlighten you (just in case you're as out of the loop as i am):

did you know.......

.....the ramones ended their farewell tour at l.a.'s palace? they were joined onstage by chris cornell (who, by the way, just released his first post-soundgarden solo cd), eddie vedder, lemmy kilmister, and members of rancid? (rolling stone, sept. 19, 1996)

.....they've made a sequel to the crow, called the crow: city of angels? (it wasn't as good as the original, despite iggy pop's major role, in my opinion.) (same issue of rolling stone)

.....aerosmith just released "nine lives", and the preshow festivities at the release party (hammerstein ballroom in nyc) included a petting zoo? (rolling stone, may 1, 1997)

.....u2 kicked off their pop mart tour on 25 april 1997 at the sam boyd stadium in vegas? (could that be a jeopardy question someday?) (same issue of rolling stone, by the way)

.....according to internet gossip, gwen stephani is engaged to gavin rossdale? (the internet speculations about her being pregnant and/or a transsexual were false, though.) (same issue)

.....bill maher's show is moving from comedy central to abc? (details, november 1996)

.....oh, and i read somewhere (can't put my finger on the issue right now) that jenny mc carthy has left "singled out", and they're replacing her with carmen electra.

just thought you might like to know.

so, i leafed through my magazines, tore out a few articles (and absolut vodka ads), and the other 99.5% of the heap is headed for the recycling bin. in fact, hang on a moment and i'll move the pile to its new home.........
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(sorry that took so long- i'm breaking in my bouncy adidas again.)

that reminds me- when we were at costco last night, i was amazed at some of the things you can buy in bulk. really, who needs a ten-pack of men's thongs? how about a pack of 25 vhs tapes? (psst- most series are being released on dvd these days, so you don't really need to tape them all each week.) need a four pack of large bottles of contact lens solution? (heck, i've taken my contacts out once during this entire trip, and i reused the solution in my little lens case. sure, my eyes should be squirting out streams of yellow gunk and i've been running into things more than usual, but after i finish this round of antibiotics, i should be fine.)

kidding, diana.

oh, and of course, since i have the maturity of a twelve year old boy (as well as the bustline), i checked- only trojan condoms come in an economy size pack. (no need to thank me for gathering up the courage to skulk around in that section, like some recently divorced middle aged man with a midlife crisis and a viagra prescription- i did it in the name of research.)

so, today, i read....and bought some of those little gouda cheeses wrapped in red wax for the hike we were going to leave this afternoon to take tomorrow, but then they started predicting thunderstorms in the canyon all day tomorrow and that just didn't sound like much fun so i think we'll leave in the morning to go to jerome and montezuma's castle instead and then squeeze in a hike, during which i will carefully free my little goudas from their waxy prisons and eat the cheese and make a ball out of the wax and ponder whether or not the wax could be used to make slightly gouda-scented candles. (sorry- it's been a while since i last had a really good paragraph long run-on sentence. not that i claim that one was really good, but i needed to let it out anyway. forgive me, mrs. mccarthy.)

oh- i also picked up the first twelve rolls of film (i go for quantity and hope that quality will make an appearance), as well as an album to put them into, and the rest is a blur of quickly turning magazine pages.