Tastes Like Christmas

The holiday drinks are BACK at Starbucks. Gingerbread lattes and peppermint mochas have come to pretty much define what Christmas tastes like, ever since Becky introduced them to me around 2001 on the Corner in Charlottesville. The Starbucks I usually go to on the way to work is GT and has had them for a few weeks, but the official launch has happened and you should be able to imbibe them across the land now. Becky says that the new gingerbread flavored creamer by.... I'm blanking on who makes it, but nonetheless, she says it's good. Not as good as Starbucks, but good.

In other Starbucks-related news, one cup of Starbucks coffee (not espresso drinks, but coffee) has as much caffeine as 8 red bulls. Holy crap. Granted, Starbucks doesn't have taurine or vitamins to give you that red bull buzz, but wow. That's almost poisenous, don't you think? 640 mg of caffeine. Wow. The up side: now I have a comeback when Jenna gets mad at me for sucking down five RBVs in a row like they're juice. Kinda.

In other holiday related news, my spirits have jumped the gun a bit and I've started listening to Christmas music. Yeah yeah, it's a bit early, but Run Run Rudolph is just a great song. Inquire within for your Amanda Mattos Christmas Mix.

I think I heard a new bone thugs song on the way into work today. I laughed. A lot. Ha, bone thugs.

Hilarious snippet from this week's 9:30 Club email: "If you're still unclear on the definition of "emo", Friday night's show is your chance to experience it live." (re: Bright Eyes) (note: I still don't like Bright Eyes. A couple choice songs, but no, I am not a fan. Drew, hush.)

Intriguing Lost theory: The island as pergatory. I'd heard this before but not paid it much mind until last night's episode. The others and the ones they take = innocents, moving on. Everybody else (per Goodwin's comment about taking good people) = bad people need to work their shit out on the island before moving on. Boone and Shannon had both faced their demons, and therefore died. The others take children, because they're innocent. There are gigantic holes in this theory (like, how could Jack or Rose be construed as bad people?, among other things). But it's intriguing nonetheless. Also, it was fun to see Mike from Ed, even though he was kind of a bastard and got killed off. That makes him the second Ed-import to appear on Lost, what with Jack marrying Carol Vessey and all. By the way, there's the back story I want cleared up the most: What in the world happened with Jack and his wife?? Also, things a dude on the radio said this morning: Echo is a priest. Ana Lucia is a cop/had a military father. Libby (the psychologist, AKA crazy Annie from Guidling Light, AKA the girlfriend on Titus) was Desmond's girlfriend that he left to go run his race. While A.L. is still a total bitchface, I've warmed up to her slightly after knowing that she was helping everybody and whatnot. She may be a little more paranoid and reactionary than our fearless leader Jack, but dude, what would YOU do on a haunted island? But, she's still a bitchface. Theory I've been knocking around but haven't formed at all yet: Bernard and Rose are some sort of unifying factor. They both seem to be Good. If we're working with mystical forces and whatnot here, perhaps they've got to bring everything back together to start to make things whole again, or for the group to really meet its purpose or something. I don't know. Oh, and I find the theory that Walt's apparitions are holographic projections bc. the island is all wired and whatnot (and that the whispers of The Others are also just speakered in sound) total b.s. That would be such a cop out if this all turned out to be at the hands of the Great and Powerful Oz. Pay no attention to the man behind the black smoke monster. Enough on that. I'm sure DCeiver will have much more interesting feedback on the whole topic of Lost later today.

PMevans82: i love how the president has kicked off this new "it's irresponsible for democrats to hold me accountable for my actions/mistakes" campaign...it's funny!

PS: It's that time again! Please send your current mailing address to AKMattos at gmail dot com.