belated birthday bounty

after a long journey, a lovely gift package, gouged and hemorrhaging padded-mailer fluff, arrived from rizbone:

• two packages of cactus Victrola needles
  
• some entertaining literature on cactus needles
  
• a packet of bamboo Victrola needles
  
• a burned CD of assorted fascinating recordings circa the 1910s through the 1930s or '40s, which i'll post about in more detail later
  
• a burned CD i haven't yet fired up, labeled "The Phantom of the Operator," which i'll also post about later
  
• all packed neatly into a nifty little cigar box
  

thanks, Face. this made my whole day.

the makeup experiment continues

i've continued to wear makeup, since it seems to be getting positive results. this evening as i was standing in the express checkout line at Safeway with a bottle of vodka and a copy of Weekly World News [1], a man engaged me in conversation. i reminded myself sternly that graying hair doesn't mean someone's too old for me anymore, and besides, i need the practice. we chuckled over the ridiculous headline [2]. he asked where they come up with this stuff, and i replied that i don't know, but that doing it for a living is my dream job.

then he pointed at the front page of another magazine, where there was a picture of some celebrity couple or other who are allegedly splitting up, the woman of the pair looking noticeably upset, and said, "doesn't that picture just break your heart?"

"uh... yeah," i lied. "that's really sad."

he wasn't really attractive anyway.

[1] and if that doesn't scream "SINGLE AND DESPERATE" i don't know what does
[2] STRANGE BREED OF CAT FOUND ON SATURN'S MOON