�First there is a mountain/Then there is no mountain/Then there is.� �Donovan

I had strange dreams all last night. My sisters were visiting and we were walking around Harvard Square only it looked like the Cotswolds in England, with cobblestones and beautiful buildings. There are beautiful buildings around, sure, but when Pacific Sun Wear takes the place of the Tasty and Uno�s takes the place of the Wirsthaus, The Squizz starts to lose some of its famous charm. Anyway, we were trotting along, going in little shops. And I found this see-through nightgown that I wanted. Actually, I couldn�t decide which one to purchase. They were all some of the most gorgeous pieces of lingerie I�d ever laid eyes on. Then we were at an open house/sale of some sort/party where people dressed as characters from The Wizard of Oz were milling about, as well as people dressed as gemstones. Emerald was walking around and then my sister points to the door at a guy in a light blue-green square outfit thing and exclaims, �Hey! There�s Aquamarine!� Schplankeh (that�s one of my new words to be said in a low nasal voice)�

Whoever keeps buzzing my apartment: Please fucking stop. I am a single woman and do not just flagrantly answer the door for anyone. And if it�s a friend: Call first! The amazing thing is it sounds kind of like the Secret Buzz, but I think it�s just a coincidence.

I believe Rob Zombie is finally letting the �soft shell of Rob Zombie� show. He was hell-bent on being the scariest mo-fo on the planet, hence only talked/sang through a sound morpher� what would have been really funny is if a roadie switched the effects processor so that it raised the pitch of his voice so that he would sound like Alvin. So anyway, all of a sudden he couldn�t help but join the league of �Regular Guys� singing about their cars, and made �My Durango.� Now I think he wants to have, like, ten million of Kid Rock�s babies. One day Rob Zombie woke up and said, �I�d like tah be a pimp for all the right reasons and set up shop on the top of Four Seasons. That sounds pretty daaahhn good tah me, guy. Wicked, good, guy.� (He�s recently let it slip that he�s from Haverhill, MA). It�s just a matter of time before he shaves his head and changes his name to Rob Abercrombie. I promise.

J�aime aussi briser la cro�te des cr�mes brul�es avec le dos de la petite cuill�re. I too enjoy cracking the hard surface of my cr�me brul�e with the back of a spoon. In fact, my phrase should be, �Jenn: Cracking the hard surface of her cr�me brul�e since 1975.� I�m going to Kristin�s later to watch Am�lie with some of the girls. Love it love it love it. If you haven�t seen it, run to see it. RUN, DAMN YOU! I also highly recommend the soundtrack. There�s not much that lovely French music lousy with accordions can�t cure. After having seen the movie several times and hearing the music right now on the film site makes me want to burst into tears. Which leads me to another question: Will the name �Am�lie� become the new �Jennifer�?

It�s funny how important music is in the beginning of a teenage relationship or a crush. The boy you like must like music that will make you ache in the dark. Here�s a little sample of my illustrious tableaux of teenage love affairs:

DG: We were young young young. He was my first real crush, I would say. I don�t think we ever even kissed. When we were asked in seventh grade to bring in a song to music class to talk about, he proudly arrived with Guns �n Roses, �I Used To Love Her�� �But I had to kill her/I had to put her six feet under/But I can still hear her complain.� Hehe.

DD: I was 14. He gave me Steve Miller Band�s Greatest Hits and told me to listen to �Fly Like an Eagle.� The relationship went downhill from there. I just couldn�t get into that cheezy synthetic boodley-boodly eagle-taking-off sound effect. It didn�t make me ache. He was a sweet young boy and by God, Mom loved �eem, but it just wasn�t going to work.

ER: I was 15. He gave me The Replacement�s Don�t Tell A Soul and a lifelong love for them began. �Rock �n Roll Ghost,� �Achin� to Be� and �I�ll Be You� made me ache in the dark for years and years. And Crowded House�s Temple of Low Men. �Better Be Home Soon�? Are you kidding me? My little heart didn�t stand a chance. We joked about being Sonny and Cher. I fell awfully and painfully in love with him but was unable to be the Sexy Beast I am now. Just as well. For some reason he decided I was evil and stomped on my heart in a very public forum. I think I told you about the newspaper in my neurosis entry.

JB: Turned me on to Ride�s Smile and Shudder to Think�s Ten Spot and Funeral at the Movies and we listened to the Cure�s �From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea� in the dark together, literally at the edge of the deep green sea in NJ, on my Wet Tunes shower radio/tape player. Summer love. I had to run out of the Body Shop one day because they were playing Cure Wish and I happened to be indulgently sniffing the vanilla oil he wore when all of a sudden, �From The Edge of the Deep Green Sea� came on. But as a teenager, I think I would seek out situations like this; a self-fulfilled prophecy of �he�s a tear that hangs inside my soul forever� proportions. I still play this song on the guitar for Kristin on late summer nights. (�You can still see me dancing in it� �Uh-oh I just quoted Edward Scissorhands, somebody please show me the shortcut out of memory lane!) I knew the writing was on the wall when he put �Love on the Rocks� by Neil Diamond on a mix tape for me. Young women should not be into Neil until their mid to late twenties. Brent is responsible for my newfound appreciation for Mr. Diamond.

Carl was the �Where Is My Mind?� guy. The �Where Is My Mind?� guy always has a special place in every Pixies lovergirl�s heart. Think about it, girls. Although, S. and I discussed quite some time ago that when you�re in your early twenties, relationships with boys that already like the Pixies will often turn out to be entirely too intense and often end in a big train wreck of fire, drugs and carpet shampoo ingestion. But when one is in her mid to late twenties, it�s just dandy if the guy has already found the love of a good Frank Black. Definitely. And lucky for me, I�m Brent�s �introduced me to the stellar brilliance of the Pixies� girl. He just happened to miss them in his Idaho hardcore days.

I made Steve a T-shirt with this extreme excellence on it for his birthday:

I gave it to him last night at the B-Side, where PBR, Maker�s Mark, Chardonnay, Kamikazes and hard-boiled eggs with hot sauce, salt and pepper, were consumed with reckless abandon.

what movie symbolism are you? find out!

Word of the Day for Friday July 19, 2002:

importunate im-POR-chuh-nit, adjective:

Troublesomely urgent; overly persistent in request or demand; unreasonably solicitous.

An emperor penguin in captivity starved to death by feeding all his rations -- about six pounds of fish daily -- to an importunate chick. --Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, [1]The Emperor's Embrace

The play is a cacophony of importunate ringing doorbells and telephones, of pleas both professional and romantic from an exasperating assortment of colleagues and admirers. --Ben Brantley, "Present Laughter," [2]New York Times, November 19, 1996

Jokes form a kind of currency, such that a wise-crack from the most importunate beggar may bring instant reward. --Max Rodenbeck, [3]Cairo: The City Victorious

Importunate is derived from Latin importunus, "unsuitable, troublesome, (of character) assertive, insolent, inconsiderate."