exorcise your cells till you're bereft

selfish gene sent angel flowers for sweetest day. angel is the mother of my friend, and selfish gene is a man who knew her nearly 50 years ago. they were teen sweethearts, but their parents didn't approve of this mismatched affair between the catholic good girl (really good, she becomes a nun) and the greaser. she, being the obedient one, ended things. to "help" him get over the grief of first love lost, his parents decided it was "best" to tell young gene she was dead. gene moves on and eventually marries, but thinks of her as his guardian angel only to discover 50 years later as he's serving on a middle school reunion committee that his angel lives! (and angel has lived, she's entered and left the nunnery, married and lost her husband, mothered two sons, and done some excellent work for moveon.org during the 2004 election). naturally, gene contacts angel and discovers her widowed status, he then sees fit to inform her that not only has she been his guardian angel for half a century but also that he hasn't had intimate relations with his wife in quite some time. aptly dubbed angel tells gene to hold his overtures until christmas (i'm assuming a divorce is perhaps in the works?), but gene considers flowers on sweetest* day appropriate. and so while i am at times a hopeless romantic, i'm calling a spade a spade and henceforth this man will be known as selfish gene.

this is the second time i've written about selfish gene and angel. the first time was in a post on my website-- a post where i was trying to exorcise my own endless lover so that 50 years later i wouldn't be pining over him. he found my post and asked me to take it down. operation exorcism aborted.

the only thing i can think to do is make a mixed tape. people make mixed tapes for lots of reasons, sometimes people even make movies about making mix tapes like my friend jefferson did. jefferson needs to get himself a webpage so he comes up in google searches, unless he wants his press to speak for itself, because google searches are crucial. oh snap. if you know me but haven't been speaking to me recently you might not be aware of my new propensity to inappropriately go "snap" at everything. for instance, you tell me my shoe is untied, i go "oh snap". it's endearing, right?

without further ado, here is my mixed tape. it isn't really organized as anything but a snapshot of my favorite songs right now. the ones i have to listen to over and over when it's nighttime or raining. songs that pull on my insides. songs you can put on a mix for me in fifty years if you want to remind me of young love.

birds walk in circles

• nervous tic motion of the head to the left - andrew bird
• autumn sweater - yo la tengo
• prestonhood - ill lit
• (hospital vespers) - the weakerthans
• postage stamp world - rogue wave
• the other man - sloan
• wendy under the stars - odds
• staring at the sun - tv on the radio
  
• my number - tegan and sara
• goodbye horses - q lazzarus
• blue moon 3 - the blood group
• diner girls - ill lit
• are you giving me back my love - sloan
  

* most everyone i know thinks of sweetest day as yet another hallmark holiday. i did too. but in actuality it was a candy company conspiracy, not a greeting card coup, that we have to thank for sweetest day -- "Sweetest Day observance originated in Cleveland in 1922. Herbert Birch Kingston, a philanthropist and candy company employee wanted to bring happiness into the lives of orphans, shut-ins and others who were forgotten. With the help of friends, he began to distribute candy and small gifts to the underprivileged. Primarily a regional observance celebrated in the Great Lakes region and the Northeast, Sweetest Day is gradually spreading to other areas of the country. Ohio** is the top state for Sweetest Day sales, followed by Michigan and Illinois." i perhaps inadvertantly celebrated by participating in National Make a Difference Day. actually, i don't think the highschool kids we took into the woods to chop down buckthorn and to infuse with the spirit of volunteerism were forgotten or particularly underprivileged, but candy was involved...

** what is it with ohio and things that go "buck" (if you followed the buckthorn link you'll know how bucked ohio is)? if it weren't for his complete lack of faith in such concepts, i'd think friendly fire and i were star-crossed lovers -- he's from the buckeye state and he did remark that reading buckwild was like a opening a present. actually, it's aight fire, that was one of the sweetest things anyone's said to me and i'm glad we're still friendly. here's your shoutout for being my most avid reader. thanks also for that comic, the andrew bird song, and my pizza cutter.