again. you can find me at

www.caralisapowers.com

I thought this morning was going to suck. I’m used to one and a half day weekends, and I just sort of had a three day one, so i was sure there was no way I’d be ready for up when the alarm went off. The alarm has not gone off yet and I’m surprisingly awake. I had a ridiculously dope weekend where I did nothing and yet accomplished a lot. I watched Love and Basketball, Something New, Romeo Must Die, and Brown Sugar all by myself and enjoyed every minute. I also:

*Cleaned and rearranged my bedroom

*Cleaned my kitchen

*Cleaned my guest room

*Cleaned my livingroom

*Cleaned my office

*Did a full report for last week for my ED since she’s been away

*Cooked and packaged meals for the whole week

*Did all of my laundry

oh yeah and

*Finished my first year of grad school.

Also, I slammed at the Lizard the other night with a new piece just to try it out. Against Adam and Karyna McGlynn so I wasn’t planning on winning or anything. I was also not planning on being heckled by some crazy guy who wrote a poem about a pepper. So (a) Adam went over and asked him to shut up or get the hell out and then (b) Joey got a 43 second time penalty putting him on blast. And they say chivalry is dead. Sofia rocked the house and did a lot of pieces I’ve heard before, but also a couple new ones. She also did the piece she wrote for her mother that she read to me the weekend we went down to Shakti before New Years. She had everyone eating out of her hand. I was like a proud big sister. Then Jess and I comiserated… well she gushed and I miserated. Not entirely miserated. I reflected.

So I have to go to the gym now. I am probably going to have a crazy day since I have to get my whole travel schedule cleared, get the date for the fundraiser confirmed, etc. I’m so psyched for Atlana. It does not seem like 3 weeks away. Ok. Breakfast and gym.

TBA

Still living in Lowell. Working in Boston. This may be the only summer on record of my life not in some way characterized by my relationship or lack of one. Started the Media Watch Team. Hired Colleen. Retreat at Omega. Melissa K. moved to DC. Hung out w. Jess a lot. We shopped at A to Z all the time. I bought an insane amount of clothing. Watched bad videos in the morning before work at the gym. Mother’s Day show @ Harper’s Ferry, concert on city hall plaza, Hip Hop reconstruction conference. Trip to Michigan w. Sofia. Presented at my first National conference. Carpooled w. Melissa a lot. My car lived in Davis Sq. Spent the weekend w. Jesse’s cousin, Moved to Boston, started grad school.

Soundtrack:

1. Ghetto Story, Baby Cham, ft Alicia Keys

2. All Night, Damian Marley

3. Red Bone Blues, Devynity

4. Unfaithful, Rihanna

5. La Tortura, Alejandro Sanz. ft Shakira

6. Buttons, Pussycat Dolls

7. London Bridge, Fergie

8. Mohegans, Iyeoka

9. Sound of Da Police, KRS One

10. I Know, Madonna

11. Me and My Girlfriend, Tupac

2005. Graduated from college. Jon came the night before Spree Day and I had to get up  for work at 5:30. I went to see him anyway. After graduation, stopped working at the bean counter. Got a “real” job @ UTEC. Didn’t have to work until 12, which was good since I had to commute an hour. Had coffee with Kirk before work a whole lot on the outside patio at the bean counter. Went to the Sahara after work with him and Kristen and Nicole. Oh! Modest Mouse Boy… wait, that was 2004. Hung out with Bridget a lot on weekends. Tara spent a couple of weekends. Drove her back to Jersey. Broke my power steering pump. Kirk made grilled tuna and I realized I like seafood. Went to batting cages and had bad flashbacks of 2003. Went shopping for stuff for his house after.  Fourth of July we hung out w. Jean, Melissa, Katie and Matt, cookout and jacuzzi. Good times. First UTEC retreat. Hung out with Jess, Nathan, Maanav, Dennis Melissa, and Cara F. Was staying in Boston at a hotel when Katrina hit. Didn’t know for 2 days. Met great guy who could recognize Aaron Sorkin quotes off the top of his head. Spent the night in his room. There should be more to that story. There isn’t. Came back to Worcester. Packed. Moved to Lowell.

Soundtrack:

1. You Got Me, The Roots ft. Erykah Badu

2. Typical Girls, the Slits

3. Sweet Jane, Live- Jim Carroll Band
4. Working for the Weekend, Loverboy
5. When Somebody Loves You Back, Teddy Pendergrass

6. Don’t Be Crushed, Hawksley Workman

7. Superman, Tai

8. Dollar Day, Mos Def

9. Hurricane, Bob Dylan

10. You Make Me Sick, Pink

11. Galang, MIA

Oh 2004. How you broke my heart. Summer I turned 21. First summer away from the Clark campus. Summer before Senior year. Worked a lot at the bean counter, which was like 5 steps from my house. That summer remembers like tank tops, cookouts, drinking, late nights, lots of coffee, lots of outside reading, lots of west wing, sports night, dwindling phone calls to NY, half way through summer I found a notebook under my bed that wasn’t mine. He told me to keep it to “remember him by.” I got indignant, and then did. I was over him until 4 days before he left. Hung out w. the WPI boys, Laurie, and Mara a lot. Me and Jean and Kelli and Katie had Sex and the City poker nights at the Sahara. Got a pedicure for my birthday. Went to the Casino. got depressed. Had carrot cake in my feezer all summer. Chris walked around the house in a towel because he had a Napoleon complex and a really nice body. Watched the West Wing twice a day. drank a lot of caffeine.

Soundtrack:

1. I am Trying to Break Your Heart, Wilco

2. Come On, Von Bondies

3. Matinee, Franz Ferdinand

4. Maps, Yeah Yeah Yeahs

5. I Don’t Like Mondays, Tori Amos

6. Fix Up, Look Sharp, Dizzee Rascal

7. Seed 2.0, The Roots

8. Jealous of Your Cigarette, Hawksley Workman

9. Daisy Duke, Rooney

10. Tide is High, Blondie

11. Laid, James

Ah, this one’s easy. This is the summer I started hanging out with Jason, spent every other weekend with some excuse to be in Larchmont or NYC to see Jon, was in the Empire Records transition with Starship and I got my car. Also, Michelle was in recovery from the broken neck, so we were hanging out a lot. I was vegan, and me and Sonja were making a lot of Vegan food. The Living Earth, the Sacrificial Lamb in the dumpster, the Lily Pad… Jeremy would only eat at the Lily Pad, Nancy Chang’s or the Lily Pad. I went there a lot. Almost took a full time job at the Living Earth and rearranged my school schedule. What? Ridiculous. Hung out with Peter (aka Holden Caulfield) and his gf in NY and made Jon come rescue me. Slept in his room with freezing cold air conditioner, ruby, and jack johnson. Started writing novel on I-84 in back seat of my car. Went to see Liz Phair at the end of the summer w. Jon, Jean, and Melissa. Lots of time at the batting cages.

Soundtrack:

1. My Biznitch is the Shiznit, Tenacious D

2. Extraordinary, Liz Phair

3. Red Vines, Aimee Mann

4. Fake Plastic Trees, Radiohead

5. Sever, Karate

6. California Stars, Wilco

7. Yellow, Coldplay

8. Girlfriend, N’SYNC

9. Cell Block Tango, Chicago Soundtrack

10. American Girls, Counting Crows

11. The Remedy, Jason Mraz

First summer in my own place. Lots of drama. Some roommate changeover. Painted, unpacked, and decorated my room the first day I moved in because Jon was coming to town. Remember packing my dorm room and he came by to invite me in the same clothes he’d been wearing when I’d seen him 3 days earlier. I didn’t care at all. Katie moved in at the end of the summer. Hung out with her and Micah a lot. Watched a lot of Seinfeld and Family Guy. Got jealous of pretty much every girl he dated but pretended not to. Had a lot of cookouts and stuff. Worked a lot at the video store. Started PA training at the end of the summer. Went to the movies with Badge and Michelle. He said we liked girly music. I watched Tombstone in his dorm room until we fell asleep. We cuddled and made out and I got freaked out that he thought it was more than it was. Then I figured out it was. And he figured out it wasn’t. Jon liked my pantry. Said it was “romantic,” not in the making out sense, but in the black and white film contemporary literature sense.

Soundtrack:

1. Fight the Power, Public Enemy

2. Don’t Let me Get Me, Pink

3. Hotel Yorba, White Stripes

4. Complicated, Avril Lavigne

5. Underneath Your Clothes, Shakira

6. Mean Sleep, Cree Summer

7. Video, India Arie

8. What’s Yr Take on Cassavetes, Le Tigre

9. Top Down, Radio On, The Charms

10. Happy Frappy, Guster

11.  Easy, Emiliana Torrini

About to start college. Talked to my roommate to be. She thought I was “a cheerleader too.” I think she was disappointed. Wrote a lot of poetry about trying to get over Rich. High speed ferry to P-Town with Sean and Jess. Lots of journal entries. Gym twice a day. Back to celery and saltines (800 calories a day… what?). CVS with Angevin. Still at YOUNG. Bought my third computer (gave my brother my old laptop for his bday). Had a crush on guy who wandered around neighborhood who turned out to be someone I still know from college. Topless photo shoot. Way more innocent than it sounds. Just really weird. Prom party crashed by grad students. Video evidence of all of this. Wanted to leave home so bad I packed in June. Katie stayed when I left.

Soundtrack:

1. As Is, Ani DiFranco

2. Sin So Well, Rebekkah

3. Only Happy When it Rains, Garbage

4. 40 Boys in 40 Nights, The Donnas

5. Lady Marmalade, Moulin Rouge Sdtrk

6. Butterfly, Crazytown

7. Hole in My Soul, Aerosmith

8. Here’s to the Night, Eve6

9. Southside, Moby

10. Drive, Incubus

11. Turn Out the Lights, Nelly Furtado

Last summer of high school. Babysitting. Asset Management company w. Sarah, Big Y with Angevin and Eyla. Watched Passions too much. Went to a lot of movies. Worked 65 hours a week. Started working at YOUNG magazine. Spent a lot of time with Katie. Sleepovers with Alison and Mandy. Got a TV and VCR for my birthday. Bought myself a new bed, rug, dresser, and furnishings, and a refrigerator and pretended to have my own apartment. Stopped eating meat. Decided that the four food groups were celery, cottage cheese, carnation instant breakfast and saltines. Got sick. Still liked Rich. Went to the Prom with someone else. Everyone slept over my house. Whipped cream fight and pizza. Liked glitter too much. Hooked up with the school f-up. Beginning of a downward spiral.

Soundtrack:

1. Say My Name, Destiny’s Child

2. Sugar, System of a Down
3. Big Pimpin’, Jay-Z

4. Shake Ya Ass, Mystikal

5. Meet Virginia, Train

6. It’s Gonna Be M, N’SYNC
7. Diamonds and Rust, Joan Baez
8. Damnit, Blink 182

9. Tricky, Run DMC

10. Bawitdaba, Kid Rock

11. Living Dead Girl, Rob Zombie