Have a pleasant day of birth.

Happy Birthdays. While i certainly do hope that everyone has an enjoyable time on their day of birth, I just can't bring myself to wish happy birthdays. It is very rare that I send out Facebook official birthday wishes, and you most certainly are special if you get a phone call. Many family members don't even get a call. (Sorry Rousseau, i really meant to call.)

So why not give a quick happy birthday via Facebook? i contemplate doing it quite a bit. My worry is that what if i send a happy birthday to one person one day but miss someone else the next day who i actually care about. Then they think i'm a jerk for missing their birthday and end up having an unhappy birthday all thanks to my wasting a happy birthday on some random person that i may or may not have went to high school with.

Where do i draw the line for birthday wishes? Only people i have had real life interaction with in the past ten years? Absolutely anyone i happen to notice with Facebook's reminder? Only give happy birthdays when drinking? Only those who wished me a happy birthday the year before?

The sucky thing is that i actually appreciate happy birthday Facebook wishes on my birthday, yet i don't give them out. After my birthday last year, i decided that i would start giving out birthday wishes right away only to postpone it until the start of the new year to be fair to the birthdays i had already missed in the first half of the year. Then i forgot. Now i remembered again because someone i know is having a milestone birthday (21, 30, 40, 50, 65, 100) and i feel they deserve a birthday wish.

Sorry sweetie, it's the only birthday pic i could find.

Searching For Sugar Man

If you haven't seen the movie, Searching For Sugar Man, stop by Redbox and pick it up this week. It was recommended to me by my brother Matt, which sometimes means a movie for people with alternative taste (no offense), but I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought it was one of the most enjoyable movies I've seen in quite awhile. It's a documentary about the story of a musician from the 1970's that never really took off and some distant fans search for his story. I recommend just renting the movie, don't even watch the preview. That's how I did it and it made it that much more interesting.

A little bit of Soul

Soul Asylum has consistently been in my top 5 favorite bands since the late 90's. So there was little question if i was going to take a night off of work to see them play in Charlotte. They had played a Friday night concert series show in a little outdoor venue in 2012 and the sound quality seemed a little off and overall there wasn't a huge crowd for them, so i was pretty surprised when i saw that they were returning to Charlotte.

The show last night was good, but i felt bad for the band because there just wasn't a crowd...maybe 50 people and the majority were seated, not down in the pit. The show felt a little rushed and after each song Dave Pirner would give a mockingly-sounding "You're too kind" or something similar. i don't know if my assessment is true, but in my head his comments were a reflection of his disappointment in the turnout. i was impressed that they did actually deviate from the set list to play an audience request, April Fool. With a changing in band members, it was nice to see they knew more songs than just the ones they learned to get through a show.

i never know what to expect going to a concert in Charlotte. The last show i went to at the same venue was Langhorne Slim and i didn't expect a a turnout that night, yet there was a solid crowd.

Maybe the dreary, rainy night kept some people away and my personal opinion is they priced it a tad high ($25) to get a casual fan to come out on a school night. Meanwhile, across town Flogging Molly was performing. Who knows? But it's safe to assume they won't be returning to the Queen City anytime soon. 

A few of my favorite things?

Holy shit. i hate having a terrible memory and no real opinions. 

Some banking site was asking me a few additional security questions to better protect my account in the future, but i had no idea what my answers were. The questions ranged from factual life events to preference-based options exclusive to my own personal taste buds. 

• What was the name of your boss at your first job?    No clue. It Took me a few minutes to recall what my first job was. i was a bagger at Wiseway in case i forget. 

• What is your least favorite vegetable?    i don't have one i like least and my vegetable preferences have changed drastically in the past year so how do i gauge my response? 

• What was the last name of your first girlfriend?  Define girlfriend. Is it the first peck i got on the playground, the first girl i dated more than 5 years, or the first girl that said yes when a friend asked if she would go out with me? 

It's amazing what i don't really know about myself. i'm not sure it's possible to force yourself to commit to opinions especially when it comes to small things, so for now i'll accept it.