This title (track 2 on LCD Soundsystem’s new totallyfreakingawesome album) is perhaps a little too descriptive for my now-exhausted body’s feeling on how Coachella 2010 went, but it was an absolutely amazing weekend:

1. My email didn’t work! THANK YOU, 70,000 hipsters a day tweeting, texting and updating your Facebook statuses (statii?)! I couldn’t try to work if I tried!!

2. I didn’t even want to try because I was having such a wonderful time. You know, I loved seeing the bands (LCD SOUNDSYSTEM IS SOOOOO AWESOME!!!!), but I had just as much fun in the RV, oh yes, THE RV, I drove down there, consuming an in ordinate amount of string cheese, samosas and wine/Trader Joe’s beer varietals. Oh, and having the kind of girl talk that is really magical in its banality and silliness because it changes you despite of, or maybe because of, its banality and silliness. I doubt there was a thought that Suganya, Penny and I shared that hasn’t been shared before, but there is such a comfort in sharing close quarters with two ladies who you know just want the best for you.

3. I laughed a lot. My sister and I took horrible photos together.

4. I taught Penny and Suganya how to play Wizard, the greatest card game ever. I sweated a lot. Sometimes we took naps.

5. I got some blisters. We broke a circuit in the RV but I could fix it because I watched an interminable video on how to operate it before we left. IT WAS AWESOME.

Needless to say, it’s hard to be back in the real world. Laurie and I were talking the other day about this New York Times article we’d read on vacation and its relationship to happiness, and how the biggest boost you get is in anticipation. Which means you need to take more frequent, shorter trips, rather than shooting your whole wad (meaning, your accrued vacation time) at once. I also think what was striking about the article was how it mentioned that those who felt “very relaxed” during their vacations felt the post-vacation happiness the most. This is my new philosophy on vacations. To build absolutely no expectations around them, to not even care what I see really. I had some bands highlighted on the Coachella stages list, but I didn’t see all of them, and I DIDN’T CARE! I really didn’t. I just went to go, to hang out with Penny and Suganya and drive an RV for the first time and see what the kids were up to these days.

And I had the best time.

Sometimes you just all of a sudden realize you might be OK again:

Your apartment is clean.

Your rent check is mailed.

You watered some plants.

You went to the gym (or in my case, pilates, and you started running again).

And you went to visit your sister Penny in the rain-sodden city of San Francisco.

Things aren’t perfect yet.

But you ate some octupus, one of your favorites.*

And you’ve been reading a lot of books from the library, which you’ve been returning on time.

And you’ve got Coachella to which to look forward.

Fingers crossed the pattern holds.

*Please do not post preachy/mean comments about octupus to me, ye who posted a preachy comment about foie gras. I only eat at restaurants that serve ethical foie gras, bitches, and to be frank, even if I didn’t, I do not post preachy/mean comments on anyone’s blog ever (that I can remember. If I have, I am very sorry and retract them and feel free to remonstrate me). So I don’t see why you need to pollute mine with one. I have never deleted a comment to date, but I can!

Thanks, everyone, for the language lessons advice as a do-over! So awesome! Spanish, I think, as I am contemplating a Thanksgiving trip to Spain, it makes sense for LA and whatnot. Plus, I love French, but somehow Spanish just so much more suits my tongue (maybe because I can roll an R but can’t manage whatever the hell it is the French do with their Rs to save my life) (although French FOOD suits my tongue more than any other food; foie gras is my favorite food on earth; it is my Desert Island Food).

So I picked some CDs up at the library this weekend (I am cheap), as well as paid off an utterly ridiculous amount of late charges (apparently I am cheap but lazy(/overworked)), and I am looking forward to expanding my mind and Spanish vocabulary.

I actually managed to do a fair amount this weekend for having to work two days of it — pilates twice and The Green Zone with Laurie this afternoon (SO INTENSE and AWESOME! Took us right back to our days of seeing all the Bourne movies in the theater). Although I cannot for the life of me seem to figure out the website of the local theater we go to, so I may have paid for our tickets TWICE (we trade off; one person the food, the other the tickets). Oh well!

I also squeezed in a half-price dinner with Suganya at The Mercantile, courtesy of a email deal from BlackboardEats on Saturday (if you are in LA or NY, check it out).

But the most exciting thing I did was take the broken-off bejeweled half of a $2.99 ring I got at Forever 21 a while ago, and, with the magic of superglue, make it into a fridge magnet to hold up that tiny little (they made them that small at some point??) picture I have of my dad and my Aunt Diane you see above.

I still wear the other half of the ring, the de-bejeweled half, all the time. Doesn’t look like it’s half a ring, no?

Anyway, half-price, double-paying, free, late charges? I’m just going to figure it evened out in the end. And I’m happy. I’ll pay full price for that.

Well, I am single again, which is perhaps why I haven’t written for dogs’ years. Also, I have been doing my civic duty as Alternate No. 1 in a THREE-AND-A-HALF-WEEK jury trial, which means I’ve been working nights and weekends. (”Saltines for dinner again, miss?” “Thank you, sir, may I have another? In a convenient two-cracker pack perhaps?” “Oh, yes, miss. I have selected the less-crumbled of the bunch for you.” “Thank you, kind sir.” (this is the conversation I have with the Saltines dispensary at 10:32 p.m.)).

I do not feel so bad about being Alternate No. 1 as apparently Charlie Kaufman was Alternate No. X on a one-month employment law trial. And he wrote, among many amazing movies, one of the best play-ish things I have ever seen in my life and am likely ever to see.

Anyway, I will spare you the gory details of both the trial and The Trials and Tribulations of My Love Life (or Sudden Absence Thereof), but I will say one thing: someone was the dickhead here, and it was NOT ME.

However!

OK, that however! was too optimistic. I have been seized with a post-breakup inertia that makes it difficult for me to stave off a bloody nose. (”What do I care if I drip blood down my pajamas as I eat my sad-sack Puffins breakfast in the morning? NO ONE WILL EVER SEE MY BLOODY PAJAMAS AGAIN.” “Of course someone will see your bloody pajamas again, Jen, YOU ARE NOT BLOODY DEAD.” (this is the conversation I have with my Puffins at 7:22 a.m.)).

But, just so you are not too worried about me conversing with carb-loaded cereals and snacks/dinner, I have actually filled the two weeks since the axe fell with dinners and drinks and general merriment. And truth be told, in some ways, which I won’t spell out here this evening, I am relieved it is over.

So now, do-over!

But the question is, do-over WHAT? Do I do-over my personal style (expensive)? Do I move (expensive)? I already got my hair cut* for the first time since October.

I find the older I get the less I am inclined to make the post-breakup overhaul (2004: move to Hollywood and decide on a whim to go to law school (major); 2007: upgrade to Silver Lake hills with a view (less major); 2010: so far I have kept my hair the same length only with more! layers! and baked some cookies.

What is a cheap, non-drastic do-over? I am NOT going back for another degree. Advice welcome and sought.

*If you live in LA, highly recommend Tamara at Gamine.

Have you ever watched someone you love set himself up for complete and total failure out of some obfuscated need and you just go with it and try to make it less painful for all? That was this trip to Joshua Tree: set out upon THREE HOURS later than necessary to make it to the park in time to walk around, when B. was already hungry and didn’t want to go to see some stupid cacti and so had to listen to Harry Potter, which she is obsessed with, on E.’s iPod, which meant E. was subjected to my iPod’s contents (the HORROR!), and when it was sprinkling which we all know means instant gridlock in LA. So this is how our trip to Joshua Tree resulted in: a) this blurry photo of said stupid cacti, the closest we got; b) one incredibly painful dinner at some hippie joint where everything was dirty and sprouted so I was incredibly grateful for the local microbrew; and c) one trip to the Joshua Tree Harley Davidson store for E. to buy a consolatory t-shirt.

But I am already laughing about it and am wondering if E. is ready, too. I will tread lightly and see. That’s one thing I have learned in life: you can’t laugh about something until the other person is ready, too. If they’re not? Disaster, it isn’t hard to master.

This is a photo B. took from the backseat on our girls’ day out a couple weekends ago. First we made Valentine’s cards at Pottery Barn Kids for free (cool, except DUDE, heart-shaped cards, those star stickers your teacher puts on your homework and crayons! that’s ALL you’ll pony up, PBK?!) (p.s. B. didn’t even care and I loved watching this sweet little boy come back to make three(!) Valentines (mom, dad, grammy) while his sisters just perused the store). Then we had lunch at Morel’s, where B. was super stoked to discover how huge the portions of Epoisses were (she is 9!). Then we wandered around American Girl Place, had some ice cream, saw a movie and got our nails done. And picked up E. for dinner downtown. Heavenly!

And this is leaning over the Santa Monica pier, when Katie, Christian (Kates’ husband, one year already!) and David came to visit me, and I took them (well, Christian drove, that man loves to take the helm of any Cadillac, rented or no) to see the Pacific at sunset (you only get sunrise on the ocean in Boston). Oh, I miss them so much. There are many friends I have I don’t get to see very often. But there are only a few for whom my heart starts to hurt if I go too long without seeing them. Apparently a Boston trip is in my near future!

The scenery is nice there, too.