I could ramble for days on the importance of family in the development of a child, but what about when the child is attempting to be an adult? Or when adult children are reverting back to their 12 year old ways? My family does not know how to respond to any sort of change, and it's more than moderately depressing.

My brain is a pretty amazing thing. When I'm in tears over the toilet paper being on the roll the wrong way, I hear this song playing over in my head. I'm tutoring a little boy who cries at the drop of a hat, and somehow I'm supposed to help him. How do I help someone who is in the same situation as me? I have all the tools necessary to externalize problems and not make everything my fault, but I still can't help it. Thankfully, my brain takes control and reminds me that the toilet paper can be fixed; my mom can stand up for herself against my brothers; I'm smart enough for grad school; I have friends who care.

I apologize for the vagueness. This is my attempt at clearing my head of negativity.

Tonight, Tonight

That's my ear. It's a picture of me blogging. I'm not good at blogging, but I needed to write something other than scientific papers analyzing kids who are abused by their parents.

I could reference The Smashing Pumpkins or West Side Story when discussing my evening, but I choose to take the high road and not use a song for my title. Artsy, irony, yadayadayada, I'm so cool.
This week:
1. Pelle Carlberg's "Everything. Now!" Adorable, solid pop album.
2. Casey Dienel's "Wind-up Canary" Lo-fi Regina Spektor-ish singer-songwriter
3. The Mountain Goats' "The Sunset Tree"
4. Psapp's "The Only Thing I Ever Wanted"
5. The Microphones' "The Glow Pt. 2"

I've been digging through the cavernous depths of my iTunes and finding older albums that I had not paid much attention to when I first received them. Pelle Carlberg is a grooveshark discovery, and he's getting me through what is definitely going to be a stressful week. I've taken on a grad level course just for fun and I'm finding that it's requiring far more time than I had previously anticipated. Carlberg's voice is just so incredibly soothing. Dienel's album is good for a G&T&aBook kind of evening, whereas the other three are perfect for wandering around Arcata. The weather has been so fickle. It's just depressing in the morning, and then the clouds break right as class starts, and it seems like it's going to be a good day. Of course, once I'm done with class and deciding that a walk home is just what the doctor ordered, the clouds come rolling right on back. Thankfully it did not rain on my blistered feet. Normally I stomp around town in my combat boots listening to Crass or Bratmobile, but I'm tense enough that punk music will just be pushing it.
I think my stress could probably be relieved with a heavy bout of sewing, but I just have not been driven to craft for weeks. Damn school. Why did I decide to come back for an extra, for funsies semester? Cos I'm ridiculous. Ugh.