I had a lot of fun at the Cardinals v.s. Falcons football game yesterday. Thank you to Daniel for inviting me.

After the football game we kicked it at his place and watched Home Alone. Total kick-ass movie that brought me right back to 1990.

I took a shower washing every body part with actual soap; including all my major crevices; including in between my toes and in my belly button which I never did before but sort of enjoyed. I washed my hair with adult formula shampoo and used cream rinse for that just-washed shine. I can’t seem to find my toothbrush, so I’ll pick one up when I go out today. Other than that, I’m in good shape.

Yesterday I wrote a post that listed the ten songs that have played an important role in my life, and today I’m going to write about the 6 books that have changed me and why. And unlike most things in my life, this list is in no particular order.

1. A Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

“It was a queer, sultry summer…”

This novel tells the story of a 20-something and her mental breakdown during her summer internship as an editor at a magazine in NYC in the 1950s. This story parallels Plath’s real life—she too worked as a young journalist and she ultimately committed suicide in 1963 and left behind this book which was published after her death.

I read this book at the right time in my life. If I were to pick it up today I’m not certain it would have the same effect that it had on me back in 2001. This book was written almost 50 years ago, but Plath’s portrayal of mental illness has more clarity than many current-day analysis have.

One of my main attractions to this book is that it is a “classic” that reads like contemporary fiction.

2. Choke – Chuck Palahniuk

“We spend our lives letting the world tell us who we are. Sane or insane. Saints or sex addicts. Heroes or victims. Letting history tell us how good or bad we are. Letting our past decide our future. Or we can decide for ourselves. And maybe it’s our job to invent something better.”

Palahniuk is really good at inspiring me to get off my ass and making me do something. As he said in Choke, “people sit at home and watch Friends because they have no friends.”

Improve yourself. Create something. Destroy something. Don’t just sit there.

Palahnuik’s novels can be read and re-read, with new meaning and new details seeping out each time. But, to me, the most important message I pulled out of all of them is do something with yourself.

Choke was the first Palahnuik novel that I picked up, as a fluke actually. And I really recommend this read to anyone that has the stomach for it.

3. The Year of Magical Thinking – Joan Didion

“Life changes fast
Life changes in an instant
You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends.”

I’ve been a fan since I first read “The Metropolitan Cathedral at San Salvador” when I was in college. This book I bought right before I went to the Phoenix airport after a long trip to my parent’s house when my dad had a stroke.

My flight was delayed a couple of hours, and I finished almost half of the book right there in Sky Harbor, and I will admit that I cried right there in the openness of the airport.

This book is an honest, poignant account of sudden death and the grief that followed. This book is not overly sentimental; she just factually covers all of the bases of her personal experience. The raw details of this book will turn off people looking for religious or spiritual guidance.

This book touches people in different ways, but I will keep it around to occasionally look through when I am thinking about grief.

4. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – Hunter S. Thompson

“Buy the ticket, take the ride”

The journalist narrator takes his attorney on a trip to Vegas to cover a bike and dune buggy race. Then they go to a meeting of cops and district attorneys who are meeting to figure out how to deal with the drug problem in the U.S.

A lot of people describe this novel as funny, and I’d agree that this book has its funny moments, but I think that ultimately this is a pretty depressing novel. The narrator is high on hallucinogens, but he’s out on the road seeking the American dream, and he’s unsuccessful. And he’ll always be unsuccessful. Or maybe the dream doesn’t exist.

The diatribe on how the energy of the 1960s has disappeared is particularly moving.

If you liked the Johnny Depp movie, or if you weren’t sure about the Johnny Depp movie I’d recommend that you read the book.

Thompson paints a setting of absolute chaos, but still manages to squeeze a solid story with true meaning out of it.

5. The Perks of Being a Wallflower – Stephen Chbosky

I walk around the school hallways and look at the people. I look at the teachers and wonder why they’re here. If they like their jobs. Or us. And I wonder how smart they were when they were fifteen. Not in a mean way. In a curious way. It’s like looking at all the students and wondering who’s had their heart broken that day, and how they are able to cope with having three quizzes and a book report due on top of that. Or wondering who did the heart breaking. And wondering why.

This is an easy read; the content isn’t challenging or incredibly poignant. But as the 15-year-old freshman narrator shares with us moments of his life, it’s impossible not to think back to each of these milestones in your life too. Your first beer party, your first returned physical attraction, your first joint, your first thoughts about sexuality, your first Rocky Horror Picture Show.

This book will never be a classic, but it’s a good way to re-live your adolescence. And you can really read this book in a day or two.

6. Post Office - Charles Bukowski

“Joan of Arc had style. Jesus had style.”

I hate Charles Bukowski. And I hate the main character of Post Office, a despicable character named Henry Chinaski. Chinaski rapes a woman in this book, he constantly berates women, and he’s a filthy pig. He is an anti-hero.

And I had all of this hate and dislike for the main character, yet I still found myself cheering him on and hoping for his safety. What Bukowski does in this novel is nothing short of brilliance.

Very recently I asked a few friends to email me the titles of their favorite songs. I was trying to bulk up my iPod with some good music. As my friends emailed me the names of the albums and artists that have been the soundtracks of their lives, some included the stories of why the songs have touched them.

With these conversations I started to think about the songs of my life. Here’s a list (and audio) of the songs that would have to be included on the soundtrack if my (currently unwritten) biography were to ever be made into a movie. These are in no particular order.

1. Snowbird - Ann Murray

Murray is one of two Canadians that made this list (can you guess the other?). We used to listen to Murray’s greatest hits album when we were cleaning our apartment every weekend as a child. I can’t help but thinking of my mom and my childhood whenever I hear this song. I’ve never paid very much attention to the words.

2. Boom Boom - Venga Boys

When I worked Grad Nights at Disneyland I danced for 8 hours on the party bus where there was a three song loop. Three song loop. Eight hours. I’m pretty certain that waterboarding is intense torture, but I’d say that listening to three songs for 8 hours a day is a close second. Every time I hear this song it brings me back to 1999.

3. Where Did My Baby Go? - John Legend

November 2006 I spent a lot of time with my (now defunct) writers group. We would meet up and write together, edit and criticize one another’s work, and just chat. During those intense writing sessions I listened to Legend’s Once Again album non-stop. I’d say that for the entire month of November I listened to nothing else. I even had a copy of the CD in my car.

4. Because of You - Kelly Clarkson

When I worked as a literacy coach a fifth-grade student named Sokuntee came to my program that had just moved to our country. Sokuntee was freaking smart as hell, and he barely spoke English. In the year that I worked with Sokuntee I taught him how to play chess (he eventually started beating me) and he would sing pop songs that he heard on the radio. Since he didn’t speak English, he never really knew any of the lyrics. But he tried. He was a big Clarkson fan.

5. Blackbird - The Beatles

I didn’t hear this song until I was an adult. It was a few months after moving out of my parent’s house (back when Napster was useful). I spent many hours in front of my crap computer downloading music and trying to figure out my direction in life. The lyrics of this song aren’t incredibly poignant, but just hearing it brings me back.

6. The Blower’s Daughter- Damien Rice

For over a year I’ve spent just about every Thursday night at Memphis Bar in downtown Santa Ana and there’s a guitar player/singer that entertains there. I had never seen the movie Closer, and when he played this song my friend Ed told me how much he liked it. So for a few Thursdays Ed would request this song, and eventually the musician would just play the song when Ed would arrive. Good song. Strange lyrics. And I still have never seen the movie Closer.

7. Gay Messiah- Rufus Wainwright

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a big Rufus fan. And songs, like Gay Messiah, have been life-altering to me because of the openly gay aspect. Many homosexuals live their lives listening to love songs about men loving women, or watching movies about women loving men. Rufus’ music openly, unabashedly, proudly, talks about homosexual issues.

8. Vogue- Madonna

Is an explanation necessary?

9. Falling- Ben Kweller

This song is about the out-of-body feeling of falling in love. Kweller is really good at rhyme, and you can’t help but sing along whenever this tune comes on. Just say “hello” to the ground.

10. Origin of Love- Hedwig And The Angry Inch

This song is from the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Everyone is searching for their other-half, and this entire musical is about the tough things we go through in life and how everyone, no matter your circumstance, will find their other piece.

I’ve been obsessed lately with finding a capella versions of my favorite songs on youtube. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Here’s a conversation I overheard yesterday:

“Well it seems like the A-Dot, the Arizona Department of Transportation, isn’t thinking long-term.”

And it annoyed me. I thought, “why use the acronym if you’re just going to say the entire thing as well?” But I gave the speaker the benefit of the doubt. “Maybe,” I thought, “she used the acronym and realized that she may have said something that her friend didn’t understand.”

Then she spit out this one:

“I’m not sure if S.R.P., the Salt River Project, serves Pinal county.”

Stupid. I think this F.A.L, fucking acronym lady, should die.

For some reason I thought that Arizona was too hot for palm trees.  I almost put  “palm trees” on that list of things that I was going to miss from Southern California once I moved here.

Good thing I didn’t have it on my list, because once I got here I realized that there are palm trees everywhere (see picture above that I took in Phoenix on Tuesday).

I’m not a gym-bunny, but I do try to stay healthy by going to the gym at least five days a week.  I’ve got diabetes, and my high-blood sugar is regulated by eating right (which is more difficult than not laughing when you see that picture of Paris Hilton crying in the car as she is going back to jail) and exercising regularly.

Well now that I’m in Arizona, there isn’t a gym too close to where my parents live, so I’ve been doing my regular running on my mom’s treadmill.  When I was going to the gym I’d run/walk 3 miles a day or 45 minutes (whichever came first).  And I’m trying to stick to that.

I never had trouble meeting that daily goal, it was always kind of fun.  But now that I’m running in my parent’s den I’m bored as heck.  And I’ve realized why: I’m fucking nosy.

I love to run at the gym because I stare at people the entire time.  But running here in the house there’s nothing to do but listen to music and stare at the wall.   I’m trying to think of ways to spice it up.  I guess I could download a few TV shows to my iPod.  Or I could actually run outside.

I read a lot. And I’ll even admit to being a book snob. From time to time I silently judge people who say that they have never read some of what I think of as essential reads.

And right now I’m in the middle of one of a brainless book that I’m kind of embarrassed to admit to reading: Street Lawyer by John Grisham. And I’m not just confessing to reading (and really enjoying) this one Grisham novel. This confession is much deeper than that; I’ve read almost every Grisham novel.

It started when I was a teenager and picked up The Client. And it slowly progressed into some of his other big ones like The Pelican Brief and A Time To Kill. And now I find myself walking the book aisle at Target (I know!) buying the latest Grisham novel because I’m too embarrassed to buy his stuff at real bookstores.

Anyone else have a guilty literary pleasure?

When I arrived here in Arizona my mom had a diabetes magazine (which she has subscribed to) and a job hunting magazine laid out on my bed. They also planned a special dinner that was meat and sugar free.

I wonder how long I’ll be able to ride out the guest-status. Any guesses?

I woke up really early this morning (I was anxious) and jumped in my small little U-Haul truck and got on the road.

I arrived in Phoenix around 1 p.m. this afternoon.

The entire Mike Lawson estate took about 30 minutes to unload with the help of sister and nephew.