Oh, yeah--I had a birthday too.

It's been over a week since I hurt my back and went to the emergency room.  I moved out of my apartment on Monday, though I could do very little to help with the move.  I got a new job on Wednesday.  I'm not taking anymore prescription medication.  And frankly, I don't remember much of last week.  Everything is kind of in a haze, but to be fair, I was pretty doped up on pain killers the entire time.  I would be right now if I still had some.  Well, I do, but you aren't supposed to take ketorolac (toradol) for more than five days in a row.  It's the hyrdocodone I'm out of.  I've been taking ibuprofen, which does not work nearly as well.
Let me just say, I'm ashamed of how little reading I've gotten done considering how much time I spent in bed last week.  I've been reading, on average, about twenty pages a day, I'd say.  It's hard to comprehend what you're reading when you're essentially high, especially when what you're reading is written in the Queen Anne style.  I was thinking that Henry Esmond seems really hard to follow compared to Thackeray's other works, but it's probably the drugs.  Maybe I'll reread it sometime when I'm not constantly impaired.
I've been downloading more music than anything else.  Probably because I wake up extremely early.  Before everyone else, so I just look up music and wander the internet.  Eisley has a new album out that's pretty amazing, and I'm been listening to a lot of MC Frontalot.  Nerdcore is the only hip hop I'll listen to.  I've downloaded about twenty-five albums in a week.  I have to say, just to get it off my chest, I've been listening to the new Hellogoodbye album quite a bit and it's rather good.  This maturer sound they've developed is refreshing.  It's poppy, but not in the dance punk style they used to have, which had long since grown stale.  It sounds more like The Format.  Hell, I even downloaded a William Shatner album.  I was surprised by how much I liked it.
All this staying up late and waking up early shit has got to stop.  Granted, two Saturdays ago--the day after my fall--I slept for nearly thirteen hours.  But I woke up at 5:00 in the morning and stayed up till around 1:30 AM, only to wake up four hours later in extreme pain.  It's been about the same routine since then.  No matter how good I feel during the day, I always wake up around 6:00 or 7:00 with my back feeling completely awful.  Right now is the worst my back's felt at night for a while, but that's probably because I haven't had a pain pill since 7:00 this morning.  Plus, I took a nap after work, and I always feel worse after sleeping.
This post seems in no way coherent to me.  That's the way I've been since the fall.  I have a hard time concentrating.  But maybe that's me blaming my accident for how I've always been.  I have had memory problems.  Not real issues.  Just not as quick on the draw as I usually am.  My wife says I should be back to speed in a little while.  Once I'm completely off of any medication, probably.  Hopefully in a weeks more time I'll stop pausing for two minutes trying to remember something I should have readily available in my mind, and stop filling my sentences with "uh's," "um's," and "I can't think of it right now's."  No brain damage or anything.  Don't worry about that.  I didn't hit my head when I fell, and my new job is at a hotel I worked at before and after three hours of refresher training I was running the shift on my own.  So, my mind is fine, just running a bit slow is all.
Hopefully this doesn't set me back on my reading list, esspecially considering I added a few books to it, I still plan on reading all five of Dickens' Christmas books in December, and I have another big move in five months.  We'll see.  I'm only on nine out of forty-one, and seven of those were in January.  I was hoping to have Henry Esmond done by the end of February, but "there's many a slip between the cup and lip" and all that.  I love that expression.

Favorite Music of 2010

I have a theory that all the best music is released on odd numbered years. There are exceptions, of course, but in my experience, the even numbered years seem to be down years in music releases.  This year is one of those exceptions.  It has been quite a good year for music, but especially the latter half.  Since tomorrow the year is ending--and with some high expectations for 2011, music-wise--I thought I'd post a list of my favorite music of 2010.  Maybe you'll see something you'd never heard of before.  I highly recommend all of the music on this list, but especially The Gaslight Anthem, Endor, Frightened Rabbit, Midlake, The Forecast, The Tallest Man on Earth, The Reign of Kindo, The Last Call, The Guggenheim Grotto, Lightspeed Champion, and Gregor McEwan.  If you haven't checked those out, do it.  Do it now!

American Slang by The Gaslight Anthem
Endor by Endor
The Winter of Mixed Drinks by Frightened Rabbit
This is What Happens by The Reign of Kindo (and the Nentendo remix of the album called This is Also What Happens)
Invented by Jimmy Eat World
The Forecast by The Forecast
The Courage of Others by Midlake
Life is Sweet! Nice to Meet You by Lightspeed Champion
You Already Have A Home by The Last Call
Bad Books by Bad Books
Volume Two by She & Him
Vagabonds by The Classic Crime
LOVE by Angels & Airwaves
My Dinosaur Life by Motion City Soundtrack
Houses and Homes by Gregor McEwan
Weathervanes by Freelance Whales
Disappearing World by Fair
Terrible Things by Terrible Things
Dark is the Way; Light is a Place by anberlin
The Wild Hunt by The Tallest Man on Earth
Death in the Park by Death in the Park
Let It Sway by Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
Devil’s Made a New Friend by Jarrod Gorbel
Sunrise by Foreverinmotion
Bird in the Tangle by Brett Detar (the country and folk solo album by the lead singer of The Juliana Theory.  Excellent album)
White Crosses by Against Me!
Love It to Life by Jesse Malin & the St Mark’s Social
Monitor by Titas Andronicus
Steel Train by Steel Train
Doesn't Play Well With Others by Joey Cape
The Optimist by New Young Pony Club
Anybody Out There by Rufio
Of Men and Angels by The Rocket Summer
Suburba by House of Heroes
Year of the Black Rainbow by Coheed & Cambria
Teen Dream by Beach House
The Fool by Warpaint
The Happiest Lamb by Audra Mae
Women and Country by Jakob Dylan
Somewhere on the Gold Coast by The Henry Clay People
Blue Giant by Blue Giant
Go by Jonsi
The Universe is Laughing by The Guggenheim Grotto
The Upsides by The Wonder Years
Eggs by Oh No Ono
OMNI by Minus the Bear
To the Secrets and Knowledge by Number One Gun
Played in Space by Something Corporate (a greastest hits, but still awesome)
28 B-Sides and Rarities by The Juliana Theory (It's just what it says it is.  "Walk Like Johnny Walker" is a must for anyone who ever liked The Juliana Theory.)

Here are some EPs that deserve an honorable mention:

Simple Science by The Get Up Kids
Rock & Roll by Frank Turner
Abnormalities by The Spill Canvas (My wife thinks "Good Graces, Bad Influences" is cheesy, but I enjoy it.)
Realities by The Spill Canvas
Formalities by The Spill Canvas (This has eleven tracks, but since most are on Abnormalities or Realities, and the one that aren't are mostly acoustic version of songs that are on those EPs, I consider it an EP and not an album.)
Ep, Part I by Lovedrug
Ep, Part II by Lovedrug
The Connection by Ride Your Bike
Walking Far From Home by Iron & Wine
Broken Dream Club by Girls
The Last Place You'll Look by We Were Promised Jetpacks
Without the Help of Sparks by Endor (technically a single, but "For the Love of Yamamoto & Ogawa" is one of my favorite songs of the year.)
Yearbook--October, November, and December EPs by Sleeping At Last
Caravan by Rush
Assailants by Lydia
Line 'Em Up by States

Sorry it was so long.  Like I said, it was a good year for music.

December Nostalgia

On the 19th I'll be driving to my parent's house to watch my dad in his church's Christmas cantata.  I'm excited for this for one main reason.  I love driving on December nights.  I have ever since 2001, the first December I had a license and the first December I had a broken heart.  I'm not going to wax nostalgic for a love than never was.  Obviously, things turned out for the best.  It wasn't the last heartbreak I'd suffer.  I'm sure it won't be the last.  But there's something interesting about the first of things.  It defines the experience to a certain extent.  I mean, this girl I'd wanted to date for three months choosing some guy she'd barely known over me hurt quite a bit for sixteen year old me; but let's be honest, my fiance who I'd been dating for nearly five years leaving me and immediately moving in with some random guy hurt far worse.  And if my wife were to leave me, I'm sure that would be unimaginably worse still.  But the first time seems stuck in my brain as the example the others follow.  Everything before that seems like childhood to me.  Everything after was. . .something else.  Certainly not manhood.  I don't know when I first described myself as a man, but it definitely was not nine years ago.
But back to my first point: driving on December nights.  Hell, let's just say December nights specifically.  Sure, I had fifteen Decembers before 2001, but somehow I never appreciated them until December 7th, nine years ago.  The fog and the snow, mixing with the glow of the streetlights.  Driving through the park a dozen times to see the the faintly viewed Christmas lights in the park.  The soundtrack: Something to Write Home About by The Get up Kids.  I listened to "Long Goodnight" for the better part of the night, and I seldom listen to it to this day for that reason.  Why?  Because some girl didn't pick me.  Now, I scoff.  If I were telling this story instead of typing it, one would hear a distinct "pfft."  But it's a part of me.  Sometimes I wish it wasn't.  It's why I get depressed every year come December.  It's why Something to Write Home About is my favorite album. . .OF. All. TIME.  If that hadn't happened, maybe my musical taste would've become much different.  I was at a crossroad at the time.  I'd just discovered Dashboard Confessional, but I'd also just discovered BoySetsFire.  Who knows?  Maybe I would be horribly into hardcore right now if not for that night.  Thank God for near misses, right?
Still, I've thought about it, if I never went through that first heartbreak, I might never become so close to the girl I was to date for four and a half years, nearly marry, and eventually be betrayed by as well.  If I had not met Rachel, Chandler and I probably wouldn't have become such close friends and I would've never met my currently wife (also named Rachel.)  It's hard not to look at these things and wonder about fate and chance.  Maybe that is the true reason I get depressed around December.  It's not the cold.  I love the cold.  It is invigorating.  But maybe I'm simply chained to memories.  Firsts can be highly definitive.
It's easy to see why they're a good thing though.  Without them, this picture of my wife and I would never exist.  The girl who broke my heart back then is happily married with a child and another on the way--or she already had the baby.  As for my ex-fiance--I'll not speak about that more than necessary.