You should show those to your dad. Isn't a park ranger (beyond it being your mom to begin with) your dad's dream woman?

That's the life, away from civilization.

Ha, I'm not sure if he has a dream woman after his last two failed him. ;) But he's happy she's there. They hang out a lot now, but no romance yet, just company.

It was really nice to be away from El Paso. Sometimes I think a quaint atmosphere like that would be the perfect place to live, but I'm turned off by the idea of everyone knowing each other's business.

I watched that White Lies video last night. It was great! I'm listening to the album right now. Kind of Editors-ish.

A new Editors album would be nice. I haven't heard the other songs from the White Lies album, been too lazy to download it -- anything good that's not on Youtube?

I seem to recall looking online once at some hotel jobs in Big Bend or something like that. It sounded kind of interesting, but I decided (on top of the fact that they probably wouldn't hire me) that I would go crazy. And yeah, with such a small pool of people, you could definitely forsee some social drama...

Hmmm, I haven't checked to see if these are on Youtube or not, but the songs "E.S.T." and "From the Stars" are pretty good. I downloaded Kasabian's new CD, it's alright, nothing too exciting. The song "Vlad the Impaler" is pretty good. Also, this is kind of old, but you might like it: "DLZ" by TV on the Radio. The rest of the CD leaves something to be desired, but for some reason, I like listening to that one on repeat.

From what I remember, Big Bend is really pretty. It's out in the boondocks, though...I don't even remember a grocery store being around it. I haven't been out there in a very long time.

Sometimes I get tired of being around so many people, but my mom was telling me you have to gauge your grocery shopping out there...most close at 8 or earlier, and aren't open Sundays. It sounds silly, but I think I'd miss that convenience. I guess you'd adapt if you liked it enough.

oh dear. I used to listen to DLZ on repeat as well! it came on randomly on my ipod once, and I was like "oh shit, what's this?" (because I'd never listened to it before) and I also didn't like their other songs, either (okay, "wolf like me" ain't bad, but I'm pretty sure it's on a different album)

okay, so you're going to HATE me for this, but I want to show you something I filmed (it's been killing me not to tell you, but I didn't want to seem like an asshole for not talking to you for so long, and then all of a sudden mentioning it): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlEuRmrZGA4

Crazy! Yeah, "wolf like me" is the only other song by them I really like.

Okay, so I can't see it at work, but I saw the title, and YES, I HATE YOU. Haha, not really. But I'm jealous! So how was Sweden?

Well ... Sweden is relatively cold (went the beginning of June). Also expensive, relative to US dollar amounts. The public transportation is pretty awesome. The sun stays out until like 10 or 11pm or something in the summer (if you watch the 2 videos I took of the show, you can see a large blue light on the right side-- that's one of those glass-block windows, and that's the 'daylight' at night). My girlfriend and I didn't like Stockholm all that much, but Gothenburg, where the show was, was pretty nice. But yeah. Pretty compact and expensive. I had been learning the language for a little less than a year, on and off, but because of the way I went about it (the wrong way), I never really learned to speak/hear it. So while I can read and write Swedish okay with a dictionary, I'm totally useless when it comes to conversations. But everybody speaks English so it's fine...

We got to hang out with Henric for a couple hours the day after the show. I was really giddy to finally meet him-- was worried that it might not work out, or it would be awkward or something. Not at all though -- he was really open and pretty funny, actually. Also really tall! He seemed flattered that we went all that way just to see the show. So yeah, Yvonne is back together, and he said he had like 10 songs that he wanted to record this summer, so I hope he gets around to that. I read in a magazine interview with him, that he has cystic fibrosis (apparently a lot of his lyrics are veiled references to that). In person he seemed to be in good health, though.

Do you remember the dream(s) you had about me being in a band? I ask because I met a guy here in San Antonio, and he's really interesting. In some ways it's like he's done all the stuff I have tried and read about, not all that long before I did. My girlfriend finds him kind of attractive, and I have a feeling you would, too (unfortunately he's kind of obscure and doesn't have a myspace or anything to get pictures from, or I'd show you) Anyway, I first met him while looking for someone to work on music with, and immediately thought of your dream when I met him in person. But I don't really remember the details.

Wow, that's cool! So how did you manage to snag Henric for a couple of hours? That's really awesome that you got to speak with him. Does he speak English well? I can't wait to hear more stuff from Yvonne; how exciting that they're back together!

I've been wanting to visit England, Hartlepool and Morpeth to be exact. I have relatives over there, and one is in her early...40's I think? She helps rehabilitate crazy criminals over there, and in her spare time, she designs stained glass windows. She came to visit two years ago, and she was really nice. She's written, and offered for us to come stay with her, but like a jerk, I haven't responded; (I've been wanting to hand write something, and I never think of doing that when I have nothing to do.) She told me they have some cool Goth festival over there every year, and it's really neat to see all the Medieval booths and people and such. She referred to herself as a "closet goth." Haha.

I usually have an easy time recalling dreams, but for some reason, I can't remember that one very well! I went back through dreams that I've written down, but I can't find it anywhere, and mostly what I remember is that you were a drummer I believe, (me and my drummers,) and you were in a three piece band, touring in a lot of places. I remember it being very strange because you were so out of your element, you had crazy costumes and were forced to be in the public eye, (though I remember you still weren't very social.) I can't recall much outside of that though...just kind of dim pieces.

It seems like I'm constantly surrounded by music and bands these days. My boyfriend is always practicing, recording, putting together different projects and such. It's strange to watch how natural it comes to some people, (as opposed to say, my occasional struggle with creation for the sake of creating.) But as much as I'm surrounded by that, I don't go to concerts all that often anymore. We went to see Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction with Becca and her fiance a few months ago, but for the most part, we rarely agree on music. He loves metal, and hates processed electronic beats, so pretty much the only thing we agree on is old music, (Led Zepplin, Elvis, Fleetwood Mac, etc...) He does like a lot of Swedish obscure metal, which makes me wonder, what's the deal with Swedish music? Was there something over there that just inspires harmony?

Yeah, I don't know why Sweden seems to have such a high per-capita rate of musical talent. Maybe it's the only way they can cheer themselves up during their dreary winters? I'm more aware of it now, but even a lot of the bands I used to listen to long before wikipedia was around, ended up being from Sweden when I later looked them up. Interlace is Swedish, which I either never knew or had forgotten. (Speaking of which, they have one new song on their myspace which I like, called "istatue": http://www.myspace.com/interlace ... the other new one kinda sucks.)

I had sent Henric a message on myspace prior to going, saying that I wanted to give him a book at the show (something I had read years ago, which seemed Texas-y enough to give as a gift -- since he reads a lot of English/American stuff. He's a big fan of the Dark Tower books, apparently).

So (remembering what you've told me about meeting bands) we just waited and waited after the show, and eventually he came out from backstage to use the bathroom, and I caught him on the way back. I was just expecting to give him the book and that was that, but he was really friendly and asked what we were going to do in Sweden. I said we were going to Stockholm the next day, and he said he was too, and that we could maybe get together. Then he gave me his phone number (digits!) and I called him from our hotel the next day, and we went to meet him at a bar, close to where he lives I guess.

His English is great (no doubt due to all his reading, but in general they all speak it pretty well). We would always go to 7-11 when we were confused about something, because they always had these 20-something girls working there who were super friendly and spoke perfect English (and compared to people who work at 7-11 in the US, some of them were even kinda hot). Lots of attractive people in general. There are a lot of immigrants there. That's really the only time you can't get by with English there, when you try to go to a pizza place or something, and the people are middle-eastern of some sort.

Yeah, I remember you mentioning that relative of yours. You should go! I would totally go to England if I had the chance. I'm not much interested in the cities, but I would like to see the countrysides, all the weird megalithic sites and ruins and stuff. I find Russia really interesting, too. I have a Russian penpal, but we write each other in Swedish. Europeans are spoiled because everything over there is relatively close together, so it's not quite such a big deal as traveling across the ocean. (By the way, if you ever do that, I would recommend staying a night in NYC/New Jersey, because being on a plane for 8 hours is mind-numbingly boring and uncomfortable) We flew from San Antonio to Newark, sat at the airport for several hours, then took the flight to Sweden, then STILL got on a train for 5 hours more, to get to Gothenburg. Not smart.

Becca's FIANCE??

Yeah, music. I'm just not feeling it these days. When I do listen, it's often to ambient electronic stuff on internet stations. I'm kinda glad I'm so distant from it right now, because the hope is that when I do stumble across that world again, there will be a whole bunch of new stuff and styles to listen to. It's weird to me that my friend Ian (the one I mentioned) is just endlessly excited about new sounds and recording stuff.

This song is pretty cheesy, but I like it: http://cajunboy.tumblr.com/post/127491249/paris-aeroplane-remix-by-friendly-fires-such-a

And here's a Diana picture from the island of Styrsö: http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/8137/53463087.png

Sweet, I'm glad he was so friendly! I can imagine the different people you'd see in a place like that. Just seeing the locals in places like Ruidoso or Albuquerque is so different from El Paso. I barely remember the type of people I saw in Germany, (maybe because attraction wasn't a big deal for me when I was 12,) but I remember them being very outspoken, and honest(?) Don't know if that's the best description, but I remember they didn't really care if they hurt your feelings or not, they just told it like it was...different from the whole PC thing over here.

I'm hoping to visit the English cousin, (Jane,) in maybe a few summers. I found some pictures of this giant tree house that the Queen had built in the area where she's from, (North Umberland I believe,) and it looks like an awesome sight.

Yep, Becca's engaged. She started dating her fiance about the same time I started dating my boyfriend and they got engaged like two months later. Two Geminis! I swear, they talk ALLLL the time. When we go camping or traveling together, there's rarely a moment when they're quiet. I never thought Becca a big talker, but I see it now that she's paired up with another Gemini. They're really cute together, they're both chubby, haha.

I didn't start getting back into music until recently. It seems that everyone released a new album, (I am X, Vast, Kasabian, Placebo, etc...) so that kind of kick started my hunt, but I think I have enough to last me for a while.

That pic looks cool! Seems like a neat place. I got my Diana film developed yesterday. The guy developed the color roll in about ten minutes, but the black and white will take a few weeks. They came out cool, but I don't have a good scanner, so it'll be a while before I get them up.