Weekend update, but I’m not Norm MacDonald.

Or Dan Akroyd. Or Jane Curtin. Or Dennis Miller. Or Kevin Nealon. Or Tina Fey. Or Jimmy Fallon. Or Colin Quinn. Or… who does it now? I can never remember. MacDonald is my favorite though, hands down. There’s something awesome about a dude who’s so unfunny (read: deadpan) that he’s hilarious.

So, for the first time ever, I’m going to try this cross-posting thing. This note/blog entry will be on Myspace, Facebook AND LiveJournal. Sick. What I really want to do is get on WordPress or something and JUST blog there, and stop all this other madness. Would anyone still read my ramblings if I did such a thing? Please let me know. ‘Cause it’s sure a lot of work to try to have decent upkeep of 3 different writing outlets.

Before I start, of course I’ve got to get a musical gripe in here: Taylor Swift needs to disappear from the airwaves. Stat. If “it’s late and your daddy don’t know”, I’ll be punching her in the larynx to cause some “teardrops on her guitar”.

Also, the word “caucus” is awesome. Heh. “Caucus.”

So it’s been a whirlwind of craziness this past week. As a lot of you know, Jackie finally made the trek out here on the 13th to live with me. She packed all she needed (for now) into two suitcases and two carry-ons – something I consider quite an achievement. It’s been a week, and I think she’s settled in quite nicely. I’d even venture to say that Cleopatra prefers Jackie’s company to mine already.

We’ve been working pretty much nonstop to try and get Jackie a job since she’s been here. There are a lot of things working against us, it seems. She doesn’t have a car, so she’ll be using my car. To expand on that, my car’s health is quickly declining. Whether it starts or not on the first try has been a coin flip lately. I have no qualms whatsoever with walking to work and letting Jackie take the Achieva, but I’m worried that the car could break down somewhere in town, and I’d have no way to get to her. I mean, there’s always Mom or Steph… but there’s still a certain amount of helplessness I wouldn’t be able to get away from.

I was really hoping Jackie’s nanny opportunity would’ve worked out. However, that fell through. The family that was offering her the job decided that they’d rather go with a live-in nanny, so Jackie got the ax. They gave her number to another family they knew of that needed help, but as of now, I don’t think Jackie’s heard from that family.

Today, we’re doing even more work on that front. Target, Kohl’s, Barnes & Noble… and everywhere in between. The sense of urgency keeps intensifying day-by-day. If she doesn’t get a job soon, things are going to get REAL tight… I make enough money to pay rent and apartment bills, but ONLY that much. That would be without paying cell or student loan bills (which I’ve been neglecting anyways), money for groceries and gas, and some other essentials. I know that whatever happens, I’ll do what it takes to keep us afloat… but I’ve been there before (B-P knows what I’m talking about, he was there with me) and I really don’t like living that way.

Outside of the whole job situation, living with Jackie has been every bit as amazing as I thought it would be. With the exception that I don’t seem to get to play video games anymore. It’s not like she’s told me I can’t or anything… I just can’t seem to find the time.

Speaking of free time – I joined a dart league with my buddy Brandon from work, and our first match was on this past Monday. It was definitely an experience – I was rusty as all hell. I still got a win (in Cricket, even) and a couple assists. I bought a cheap board for the apartment so I could practice, and even upgraded my darts/bought a backup set. I’m really gung-ho into the whole venture because a.) darts are really fun, b.) it gets me out of the apartment at least once a week and c.) Brandon’s a cool guy, and it’s nice to have a friend from work that hates talking about work. I guess there’s also a d.) our team name is “3 Studs & A Bitch”. The name was the suggestion of the sole female on our team… figures, right?

I’m having to aircheck myself right now, so that my boss Justin and I can have a meeting and go over it this next week. Usually I forget I have the flash drive in, and I just do my show as normal. Today though, I keep remembering that it’s in seconds before I pop on-air, and I think it’s making me nervous. Sick. I think the thing that’s really making me nervous is the fact that I’ve been getting lazy with my air shifts. Mostly because I got put back on early mornings (5am – 10am) and I HATE THIS SHIFT. I’m a ton more energetic and willing to talk to callers/do show prep during the overnight. When I do the early morning show, I’m usually entirely too tired to even be able to think.

I think I’ve found my first pet peeve as a resident of Nevada. Does it bother anyone else when people pronounce it “Neh-VAH-dah”? It makes me cringe, for some reason. Before I lived here, I’m pretty sure I didn’t care, and I might have even pronounced it that way myself. Since I’ve been out here for long enough to feel acclimated though… it gets on my nerves. That’s stupid.

Last night, Jackie and I went to watch our friend Juan perform at “Dancing With The Stars” at Arthur Murray Dance Academy. I’ve gotta say, the dude has moves. He kind of got screwed, though – with everyone else, their music was cued up well, no problems. With Juan’s performance, they fucked up on the music at least 3 times. You could tell it threw him off in the beginning, and he was off-tempo for most of the routine (according to the judge). I thought he was awesome. The judges however, gave him the lowest score of the night. I hope he makes it to the next week. Sadly, I was the only person from the station to show up – I was kind of expecting more people to come and support him.

A big reason I’m happy I went? (Sad as this might be…) One of the dudes used a song I’d never heard before for his performance, and it was so awesome that I immediately went on my iPhone and bought it when we got home. That song was the Aqua Teen Hunger Force theme song, done by Richard Cheese. Do yourself a favor and check it out if you get the chance – if you’re a fan of the series, Richard Cheese, or BOTH – you’ll dig it intensely.

I need to do some research and plan to go to First Friday one of these times. I’m thinking it’s something Jackie and I will both enjoy a lot. Sadly, I was reading that their funding has been cut drastically (something like going from $160,000/year to $80,000/year) and now they have to charge $2 a head to get in, where before it was free. I hope that doesn’t affect the turnout too drastically – it sounds like such an awesome event, and something that’s been around *far* too long to just die like that.

Real quick: If you’re reading this and you have an iPhone, do yourself a huge favor (if you haven’t jailbroken yours, that is) and update to 1.1.3. The updates and tweaks on the Maps alone is enough to warrant it, but the ability to mess around with your Springboard (rearranging icons and adding bookmarks) is excellent. Also, if you’re a music-head like myself, check out the website http://www.seeqpod.com. It’s optimized for the iPhone, and it’s the “World’s Largest Playable Web Database of Music” or something like that. Either way, it’s what I’ll be playing with until they develop a version of Slacker.com or Pandora that works on the iPhone.

I think that’s enough babble to call this a wrap.

I’m Justin Heeren, and I approve this message.  Because I fucking typed it.