Today my father handed me a CD-R that ended up being this mix I had made for my mother right after she and my dad divorced my senior year of high school. I have no idea why it was at his apartment - I guess it shows the level of attachment she had to it - but here's the track listing of songs that, in 2004, I deemed "cheer up single woman" style. (The best part of the CD isn't the music, but rather, my handwriting in thin-tip Sharpie. It looks EPIC.)

1. Here Comes My Baby - Cat Stevens
2. Stuck In the Middle With You - Steeler's Wheel
3. Fit But You Know It - The Streets * this is a really weird choice
4. Friend of the Devil - Grateful Dead
5. Good Morning Starshine - Hair
6. Ruby Tuesday - The Rolling Stones
7. Things Are What You Make of Them - Bishop Allen * they were like my second-favorite band in high school
8. Flowers On the Wall - Startler Brothers * this is also a really weird choice
9. Like a Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan * shouldn't have included this on a divorce mix
10. I Was Wrong - Badly Drawn Boy * shouldn't have included this on a divorce mix
11. Radio, Radio - Elvis Costello
12. A Hard Day's Night - The Beatles
13. It's Only Time - Magnetic Fields * shouldn't have included this on a divorce mix
14. Beautiful Boy - John Lennon * known to anyone who's, like, ever seen a movie as "Beautiful Cole," probably not appropriate for this mix
15. Box of Rain - Grateful Dead
16. Two of Us - The Beatles * shouldn't have included this on a divorce mix
17. Alison - Elvis Costello
18. Wouldn't It Be Nice - The Beach Boys * shouldn't have been included
19. Ooh La La - Faces
20. Carrot Rope - * this was like my favorite song by my favorite band in high school and a totally selfish way to close a CD for my Grateful Dead-loving mother

All in all not a great mix but not a bad one; definitely better than the post-divorce mix I made for her that included the song "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" from Dreamgirls, but still lacking in cohesion.

(Also of note: I love Kashi Vive, it's the best, and I finally got the nerve to vandalize a Funny People poster, look for it at the Graham L stop.)

Thanks, Mom!

My mother is officially fluent in internet:

Recent things that make me happy, material and immaterial:
1. My mother's visit
2. The smell of lotion on my lower arms
3. A giant crush on the coffee man on 53rd and 7th, and his 75 cent coffee
4. Our new spice rack
5. Opposite shoe purchases: Melissa rubbery high heels, and suede Toms (both black)
6. Greenpoint, as always
7. The end to the am-I-or-aren't-I-registered-to-vote-crisis: New York voters, you can use this website to check

Makes me unhappy:
1. My mother's departure
2. Creative mental block
3. So many movies to see and no time to see them
4. The spice rack fell down

My mother and I send each other such great care packages that I will start recording their contents here. Phyllis' second care package includes: 1) This Must Be The Place (novel about moving to Berlin) 2) pair of American Apparel green and blue "tap panty" (my favorite kind of underwear!) 3) chocolate bar with bacon and salt in it 4) chocolate bar with encho, chillies, and cinnamon in it 4) Family Circus cartoon encaptioned "I wish Mommy would quit singin' that 'School days, school days' song" 5) one of her signature kawaii Yoshimoto Nara postcards. How can I top this?

Edit: I was already topped. Look at this recent email from Phyllis to me and my sister: "...Indicative of the black mood I'm in, this has led me to wonder if, when you're complaining about me to your dad (or each other), do you say, 'Mom's being such a cunt about....' And, this is the semantics part, why would this feel so much worse, so disloyal? Is it because we're comrades in female chromosones? Or something more?"

I recently only want to rent scary movies.
I'm cutting off my hair and getting some business casual clothing/a manicure in a "rebellious" shade for my first day at the new job.
And, we are painting the apartment walls a rich eggplant and getting hanging flower baskets and more paint from Kmart.

Low Moments In Lowbrow:
1. Weekly World News folds.
2. My mom friends my sister and I on Facebook, posts a comment on my wall, passive aggressively writes to us on her own wall.
3. I loved loved loved Rock Of Love, the new VH1 Bret Michaels dating show.