Xoxo, Gossip Crow

Now Playing: ME! by Taylor Swift

I promise that you’ll never find another like me

I know that I’m a handful baby, unh

I know I never think before I jump

And you’re the kind of guy the ladies want

And there’s a lot of cool chicks out there

I know that I went psycho on the phone

I never leave well enough alone

And trouble’s gonna follow where I go

And there’s a lot of cool chicks out there

One of these things is not like the other

Like a rainbow with all of the colors

Baby doll when it comes to a lover

I promise that you’ll never find another like

Me

Ooh

I’m the only one of me

Baby that’s the fun of me

Ooh

You’re the only one of you

Baby that’s the fun of you

And I promise that nobody’s gonna love you like me

I know I tend to make it about me

I know you never get just what you see

But I will never bore you baby

And there’s a lot of lame guys out there

And when we had that fight out in the rain

You ran after me and called me name

I never wanna see you walk away

And there’s a lot of lame guys out there

One of these things is not like the other

Living in winter, I am your summer

Baby doll when it comes to a lover

I promise that you’ll never find another like

Me

Ooh

I’m the only one of me

Let me keep you company

Ooh

You’re the only one of you

Baby that’s the fun of you

And I promise that nobody’s gonna love you like me

_____________________________________________________________

It’s still crazy to me that I just typed that out in the NP. It’s absolutely insane that this era, this album cycle, has started already. This has been the shortest amount of time we’ve ever had to wait for new music from Taylor and a bitch is into it.

So this week hasn’t been necessarily too bad, it’s just sort of been irregular. At least far as work was concerned. When I ended up working on Saturday, Kay wanted me to come in early on Monday, working 5-2, so that’s what I did. And that was a huge fucking mess. I ended up having to correct what my fellow DMs that worked overnight did, and I barely had any time to actually to what I came in to do, so that was hella frustrating. All of this work week has been me trying to catch up from Monday. Because we’ve been trying to set and fill all my things in Seasonal, on top of take care of Toys’ daily functions. I even came in early again on Thursday, per Kay’s request, to try to clean up all the accumulated freight and things that had piled up from the week. And that day, I did a shit ton. I pretty much got everything done, everything straight, and everything caught up by the time I left Friday. It’s been a time, let me tell ya.

A new development that happened this week is our plans this summer. I’ve been wanting to try and plan a beach trip for Allen, because I know how much he loves the beach, and I want to be able to go to, so after some research and some happenstances, I ended up messaging Rosanna about whether or not we could come down to visit her and simultaneously visit the beach as well. That turned out to be a green light for a beach trip, and we had the date set and everything, but then Thursday, I found out that we have Inventory the week after that weekend, and there’s just no way they’re going to let me have the weekend before Inventory off. But I talked it out with Rosanna, and we’re going the weekend afterInventory now, and everything seems to be in motion again. Let’s just hope Work doesn’t beach block me and deny the time I put in for.

Tuesday was my day off this week, which was sort of weird. I didn’t end up getting as much writing as I wanted done, but before at least did some. I had to get up at a decent time so I could go get supplies to mail out my books for the giveaway I did on my channel, so I got up and headed down to Bell Creek, the first store I worked at when I moved down here, and gathered up all of my supplies. Then I got everything ready and headed to the post office and mailed it out, but everything ended up coming back the other day, just like my book submission for that Best Self-Published Book Contest did, so I’m going to have to get more stamps and then try to mail it again, but that’ll be later on this week.

Tuesday was also the day we got Mortal Kombat 11. Allen loves him some MK11, and I do too, so I went ahead and got it while I was out at the store. So we’ve basically been playing that instead of Smash this week. My favorite character from past MK games, Frost, is in it, but she’s not the same, and I’m low-key upset about it. I really like a fairly new character named Skarlet so I’ll probably end up playing as her mostly. We finally finished the story the other day, I think Saturday? And it’s really good. The only con (or in this case, Kahn. See what I did there?) is that in the in between scenes, while it’s basically loading the fight between the two characters, it literally looks like shit. Otherwise, the game is pretty awesome and I really enjoy it. I kinda wanna go back to past games and get more of the story. Mainly Mortal Kombat X, I’ve already started watching that, so I have that to look forward to.

Saturday I ended up having to get up super early because it was time to finally face a solution towards my license plate stickers and not having the correct year on them. They got thrown away literally months ago, and I just really needed to get it done. So I got up at 7 on my weekend off (scheduled it myself, of course, because work letting me have a weekend off? Lol) and headed to the DMV before it opened. And there was literally a line of about 50 people before me. 50. At 8 am on a Saturday. I was expecting a line but not a line of 50 damn people. Anyway, that went pretty smoothly and fast, and it only cost me $1 to get the replacement stickers, and I was on my merry fucking way. Then we ended up, after Allen had Kelly and Rebecca over after their whole wedding thing, going to my new favorite place: a Mexican restaurant. Ever since moving to Richmond, I’ve missed having a go to Mexican place, since it’s my favorite food. Sure, the sushi has me almost all the way satiated, but not enough. Well fear not, because Plaza Azteca is my new Mexican place of choice. The WHITE SAUCE. That’s how I judge a place. It’s so good. Plus they make you fresh guac at your table and it was pretty bomb. And the food was not only amazing but MASSIVE portions, so it’s the best. From Alejandro’s to Plaza Azteca. A bitch is into it.

Now, for the main event. So if one were to follow any, and I mean any, or my social media lately, one might see that I’ve been promoting the SHIT out of TS7 and it’s forthcoming arrival. Well, as it is out now, shit went the fuck down. Let me paint you a picture: Thursday. I went in early because Kay asked me too, and at around 1:30, Swift hit the fan. The fan being me, in the face. So back a month or two ago, there was this mural repainted in Nashville, and everyone within the fandom was connecting it to Taylor, but we just thought it was a coincidence. BADA OOO.WRONG. It was Taylor. And she showed up there and was like SURPRISE BITCH. So there was the word “ME!” and people were saying that’s the album title, and I was hoping it was just the song title. Then Taylor announces to watch the NFL draft on ABC because she’s announcing something. Yet again, only Taylor Swift can get my gay ass to watch something football related. That sort of ended up being a bust, because we already knew the single was. Alex ME! And that’s what she announced. It’s featuring Brendon Urie tough, which is sort of a curveball. They’re voices together though is a forever mood. So yeah, then the song came out Friday, I reacted to it before work in my car, then reacted to the music video during lunch, and got both videos up that day. It’s nice to be putting our videos that are getting decent views. Not that I really care / make money off of these videos. It’s just nice to see those numbers I guess. But the song. It’s good, but it was a little underwhelming until I saw the video. The video helped, but Look What You Made Me Do will always be my favorite lead single from her. There’s so many theories, since Taylor said she hid the title of the album in the video, about that the album could be titled. I’m partial to Heart / Lover theory, but I wouldn’t mind Kaleidoscope, Spectrum, or Calm. There’s literally so many. A lot of people are banking on Home, which I hope is wrong, but I guess only time will tell. I’m just ready for this album, and I’m even more ready for this album to have a name.

And the title of this blog 😂😂. We drank some wine outside Sunday and these two crows kept cawing and flying around us and I said this. We named them Kristen and Rob in case you were wondering. Also, I finished a book this year! Woo! The Long Way Down by Craig Schaefer. I started it last year but finally finished it this year. Feels good to get more reading done.

Until next time,

— Justin

Bada Ooo

Now Playing: My Own Worst Enemy by Lit

Can we forget about the things I said when I was drunk

I didn’t mean to call you that

I can't remember what was said

And what you threw at me

Please tell me

Please tell me why

The car is in the front yard and I'm

Sleeping with my clothes on

Came in through the window last night

And you're gone

Gone

It's no surprise to me I am my own worst enemy

Cause every now and then I kick the living shit out of me

A smoke alarm is going off and there's a cigarette

Still burning

Please tell me why

The car is in the front yard and I'm

Sleeping with my clothes on

Came in through the window last night

And you're gone

Gone

Please tell me why

The car is in the front yard and I'm

Sleeping with my clothes on

Came in through the window last night

And you're gone

It's no surprise to me I am my own worst enemy

Cause every now and then I kick the living shit out of me

Can we forget about the things I said when I was drunk

I didn't mean to call you that

____________________________________________________________

Hello! So this has been a week. Mainly in the Taylor Swift fandom, but nevertheless, it’s been a time. So right after the last blog, we went on the road headed to Farmville for the last show of one of Allen’s friends, and it was...something. The acting and singing in it was fine, but the actual story itself...was horrific. Honestly, that’s me putting it mildly. It was just bad. But at least it was an experience I guess. The true experience was seeing Farmville locals when we went to Applebee’s afterwards and I’ve never been more thankful that I didn’t go to Longwood haha. The drive was just a lot. By the time we got home super last Saturday night, I was so tired. I don’t even remember going to sleep that night, that’s how tired I was just from the work week and everything we did last week. Thankfully, this week has been totes more chill. 

We finished Sabrina on Sunday, and it was amazing. It’s become my favorite TV show that’s come out recently, and I’m really glad that we still have Parts 3 and 4 to look forward to. My only critique of the end of Part 2 was that literally every single conflict was sort of wrapped up one way or the other, so I’m not really sure what the big issues are going to be in Part 3, but I suppose that’s half the fun.

Work hasn’t been too bad this week, but it was the second week in a row that Monday was just enough. We yet again have another system in place for all the equipment that happened on Thursday, and it should work out, aside from sharing with associates, but you know. 

I was supposed to have Thursday off this week, which is weird because normally it’s Wednesday’s, but after talking with my assistant we changed it back to Wednesday because of whatever reason she said, so that’s what happened. I ended up doing a fair bit of writing Tuesday night since I was off on Wednesday, and I’m gearing up for the end of this book. I’m at that point where I’m so far along and so close to the end, that I’m having to completely flesh out the timing of the last several chapters and it’s so damn exciting. I get really inspired and really high on writing when this happens, so I’m super excited to see it flourishing so well. 

On my actual day off, I started filming the Speak Now ranking video, but I wasn’t feeling at the moment, so I decided to shelf it until my next day off (Tuesday) and then I’ll came back to it. I also switched phone carriers for like the a thousandth time and ended up getting switched over to T-Mobile (which I’m going to pretend stands for Taylor Mobile). So far so good. Not AS strong of a connection as Verizon, but literally half as cheap, so I’m not complaining. It’ll really help us with getting a place even more so now that my phone bill is literally cut in half. After getting my phone changed, I was feeling really drained and like I needed a break (I think trying to film the video and doing my writing the night before helped contribute to this feeling), so I ended up taking it easy. I watched the movie The Silence with Kiernan Shipka and Miranda Otto, aka Sabrina and Zelda in the Netflix show, while I plotted out the planning of my book. It was okay, but the plot was a little flawed, but at least it had my girls in it. 

Thursday night was a day. That night, I couldn’t sleep, barely slept like three hours on and off, and I ended up going into work early. I worked a 4 to 1, and that was fine, I ended up getting some more mods done as well as my usual work. And I beat the storm I guess? Driving home in it was not fun, but it didn’t last long. I was so tired when I got home that I ended up taking like a three hour nap. It was so needed, you have no idea. Then that brings us to today, which I’ve sort of been taking easy just because I need it today, and I ended up making another video about TS7 because of all of Taylor’s shenanigans. From all her Instagram posts every day to the weird conspiracies about the album and what exactly might be happening on April 26th. I can’t believe we’re allegedly getting a new single this coming Friday. Like this is the earliest she’s EVER released new music between albums and I’m fucking ready for it. 

Oh, and the title of this blog comes from this video of Jasmine Masters that’s been going around lately and we’ve been saying it NON STOP. But anyway, this weekend should be relatively low key, and next week will be interesting since my day off isn’t normal and I’m coming in early Monday to set summer mods. I’m looking forward to movie watching this weekend, Smash, and some writing and reading. And maybe sushi because I have a problem 👀. 

Until next time,

— Justin

‘Brina! Part II

Now Playing: Get Free by Lana Del Rey

Finally, I'm crossing the threshold

From the ordinary world

To the reveal of my heart

Undoubtedly, that will for certain

Take the dead out of the sea

And the darkness from the arts

This is my commitment (ah)

My modern manifesto (ah)

I'm doing it for all of us (ah)

Who never got the chance

For a handful

And all my birds of paradise

Who never got to fly at night

'Cause they were caught up in the dens

Sometimes it feels like I've got a war in my mind

I want to get off but I keep riding the ride

I never really notice that I had to decide

To play someone's game or to live my own life And now I do

I want to move

Out of the black (out of the black)

Into to the blue (into the blue)

______________________________________________________________

BITCH. This week has been absolutely insane. Insanely busy, insanely tiring, just absolutely crazy, but I’m glad it’s coming to an end so I can catch up on some sleep. But before that happens, it’s time to spill the tea.

So Monday was a really frustrating day but also a really great day? Love a good dichotomy. So work was really extra at the start of the work week, and considering that I worked six days in a row because I was off he weekend, that’s not how one typically wants to start said work week. But alas, it happened. From the equipment still being an issue to managers giving me attitude for absolutely no reason to not having any room to put my incoming merchandise, Monday was just a lot. So it was weird when I was thinking “Hmm, you know what sounds good? Exercise”. That’s when you know. Luckily, my boyfriend was thinking the same thing and asked if I wanted to go to this park we’ve gone to after work for it, so that gave me something to put all that negative energy towards. So after work, that’s what we did. And I felt great afterwards. Not only because I got to vent to him, but also because I fueled all the negative parts of the day towards something really positive. I think I need to do that more. Then after that, I ended up doing some writing in Book Two, while listening to Lana again, so that was also very therapeutic for my body haha. So while it was a very frustrating start to the day, it had a really positive ending. Love that for me.

Also Monday, I ended up making a new video, talking about how I want to hear my channel more towards writing and trying to build a real readership there and turn my viewers into readers. People were pretty responsive to that, so I’m super hopeful about it. 

Moving on, Tuesday afternoon was filled with another outing as well. After work, we ended up going to Sushi King with Kelly, and that was a time and a half. Then we stopped by Second & Charles before heading home, and man how I wish I could get a management job there because I absolutely love it. We kept quoting vines and laughing and a good time was had by all. Wednesday was semi unfortunate in that I didn’t have it off like I’m used to, but it was yet another day of going somewhere after work. We ended up going to our friend Lorin’s place for dinner, but it was a good time. Thursday luckily was our day to rest after work, and it was the only one we would end up having haha. We played Smash in bed, watched TV in bed. It was a bed day, and it was needed. 

Speaking of TV, we need to talk about Sabrina BITCH. Part 2 is so damn good. It’s probably a little bit darker than Part 1 was, and that’s saying something. The episodes “Blackwood” and “The Missionaries”, the latter being the last of which we watched, had me so fucked up in the best way possible. I can’t get over how much I love this show, and I’m so glad we had at least two more seasons or parts coming our way. Maybe sooner rather than later since Part 2 came out so damn soon after Part 1. One can hope, anyway.

Like I sort of said before, work sort of mellowed out after Monday, aside from daily frustrations, and it’s been pretty easy to get through. Friday was the first day this past week of work has hit me, from all the lifting and sorting I’ve done at work to all the activities we’ve done afterwards, my body is aching for a break. But again, work wasn’t too bad, I was just tired. But we had plans again after work. While I waited for Allen to get home, I ended up starting but not finishing my next video, which is going to include a giveaway of my first book! It’s going to sort of be my first segue towards book related stuff on my channel, and I’m super excited about it. But once he got home, we went to eat at Texas Roadhouse, which wasn’t that great but what can you do? Followed by us seeing Hellboy because his mom got tickets for super super cheap but only if we saw it that day, hence why this week was even more jam packed. The movie was good, some plot lines were a little iffy, but it wasn’t too bad. I just don’t understand why we needed to reboot Hellboy after having two movies already, but ya know.

Wguch brings us to today. Again, I had to work. It’s day six of six, so I’m super glad to have this extra long work week behind me. But, you guessed it! We have plans after work again. Today is one of Allen’s friends last shows back at Longwood, so we’re headed to see it. And even though we got woken up this morning because of his grandma falling, and I never really went back to sleep after, I’m still looking forward to seeing it. The last show we saw there, Forum, was actually really really good, so even though my body is like please stop, I know that I’ll be entertained and I’ll be enjoying myself.

And then, also this morning, something BIG happened. And if you know me and my favorite artist, you already know what’s coming. The queen herself, Taylor Swift, announced something. I woke up to texts and messages about it, and as I was freaking out, I saw why. She announced a countdown on her instagram, and just announced a date: April 26th. What’s happening that day?? I’m hoping to GOD it’s new music and not some type of Cats promo. I don’t know why she would be the one to announce a Cats promo instead of the movie itself, but you never know these days. But everyone is speculating that’s it’s about new music, and Taylor even posted on Instagram some sort of heart thing related to it? I ended up making a quick video this morning and uploading it because I was so fucked up. TS7 IS COMINGAND I AM NOT READY FOR IT.

Until next time,

— Justin

Oh My God, It’s She-Ra

Now Playing: Just Thought About You by Betty Who

When glass don’t break

When time don’t fly

When the snow’s falling in July

When I don’t need to breathe to be alive

Thats when I’ll stop thinking bout you

When you play with fire

And don’t get burned

When I fall in love and don’t get hurt

When I’m not missing everything we were

That’s when I’ll stop thinking bout you

I can still

Feel you

You’re everywhere

I can taste

Your lips

Hear your voice in my head

And I know that I should shut my mouth

And just hang up the phone

But I still

Want you

I just thought you should know

When the sun burns out

And the stars are dead

When your voice ain’t running through my head

When I fill this void here in my bed

That’s when I’ll stop thinking bout you

‘Cause I can still

Feel you

You’re everywhere

I can taste

Your lips

Hear your voice in my head

And I know that I should shut my mouth

And just hang up the phone

But I still

Want you

I just thought you should know

_______________________________________________________

Okay, I’m back in my Betty Who bullshit. The song in the NP is actually a mash-up by none other than yours truly. It’s a mix of Just Thought You Should Know and Stop Thinking About You. I’m absolutely obsessed with it. I honestly wish the verses of About You and the chorus of Just Thought we’re actually together because when mixed, they make a perfect song in my opinion. But anyway, on to the blog.

This week, yo. It has FLOWN by for some reason. I don’t understand it, but I am here 👏🏼 for 👏🏼 it! Some interesting information that happened this week is my brother got his first job...working at the same place as my best friend, no less. So now Benzo and my brother work together, and that’s just a crazy concept. I still remember when he was brought home from the hospital, so it’s just weird to think about him working with my best friend now. Life is crazy™️ Shane Dawson. 

Work has been okay lately. Aside from the normal super annoying things that are happening around here, I’ve just mainly been surprised by how fast the work week has gotten away from me. Not that I’m complaining, as I said, I’m all here for it. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I only had to work Monday and Tuesday, then I was off Wednesday, then I had to work Thursday and Friday before my long awaited weekend off. It would be better if I didn’t have to specifically schedule this weekend off, and it would be better if I didn’t have to work six days in a row after this weekend off, but I’ll take what luxuries I can when it comes to days off around here.

Tuesday was pretty cool because we did our semi-usual routine of me doing a bit of writing and Allen doing a bit of studying. I was in a writing mood, as well as a Lana mood (my need for Lana’s new album knows no bounds lately), so that’s what I did. And I actually ended up finishing chapter 13 like two scenes ahead of time. I’m going to cycle said scenes into chapter 14 because even though chapter 13 has less scene changes in it, it’s actually the size of most of the other chapters, so I just kind of went in I guess?? Haha I don’t know, but it feels good to be that much closer to being finished with it. My appointment for Book Two’s cover is coming closer and closer, with a July 9th start time (peep that Taylor Swift reference though 👀) so I’ve got that to think about as well. But all in all, I was super happy that I got that done on Tuesday night. 

 We’ve also been dealing with apartment stuff this week again. After the fiasco that was our last visitation to apartment hunting, we’ve been trying to get more information about these two particular apartments. Mainly because we made a super tight and super detailed budget for our expenses and everything, just to see what we really can and can’t afford, assigning it to an actual number that we can’t go over if we still want to be able to put food in the place. So armed with that information, we’ve been setting our sights on these two aforementioned apartments. Only they weren’t picking up at the beginning of this week, and we finally heard back from one of them after I called Wednesday. Plus Allen found this house on Facebook Marketplace that I think we’re still going to see on Sunday? It’s a really good deal, but I’m just weary of renting from someone that’s not through an actual complex or something. But we shall see.

Tuesday was also the night we randomly started She-Ra. Both of us have been semi interested in watching it after hearing that it was pretty good, so we ended up starting it and it’s actually really good! It’s giving me Wonder Woman mixed with Avatar: The Last Airbender and it’s great. The second season drops on Netflix I think the 26th of April or something, so we have some more episode to look forward too. Basically Tuesday was just a really great day. Wednesday, since I was off and Allen was off this whole week from spring break, we had some plans. We went to lunch at Sushi King, then he was taking me to a secret place that he had taken Kelly on Monday. It ended up being New Kent winery, which I ended up loving. Their wine is really good, and to become a member it’s literally nothing and you don’t have to keep up with buying a bunch of bottles. Might look into that in the future. Then we were going to go to the Barnes & Noble in Short Pump, but Allen wasn’t feeling too good so we ended up going home before he went back out for his haircut. All in all, it was a really good day.

The rest of the work week continued to go by pretty fast, so I was thankful for that. Friday was the day that Part 2 of Sabrina popped off on Netflix, so we ended up watching the first episode that night, and so far it’s upholding to the first season. I’m into it, as expected. Then Saturday we had a wine festival we were going to with his mom and some of her friends. So we headed over to James River winery for the event and that was a lot of fun. We got to sample wines from some other wineries, shop around, I ended up buying this painting of Patron, and we ended up sort of making a new friend in one of his moms friends daughter in law, so thanks to Diana I guess haha. She also is a teacher and knows some of Allen’s co-workers because she helped open the school he works at, so that was a hoot and a holler. After the winery, we headed home where Rebecca came over, but I was so drained. I ended up getting sunburnt on my arms at the event, and the sunburn was just absolutely draining me. But dinner was nice, we ate outside and chilled, then came back upstairs and they did a reading and then we all played Smash. A long day, but a really good day. 

I’m also thinking about switching phone carriers just so I can save some money, which will help us with having more money to move. I think I’m going to go there one day after work this upcoming week, and see if I can switch. Mainly because it’s looking like I can switch and they cover my termination fees with Verizon, so that’ll be really the only way I can switch over, but we shall see. Hopefully we get to finish Sabrina this upcoming week because a bitch is obsessed. And then, hopefully I can survive this upcoming work week because I have to work six days in a row to compensate for me having this weekend off. Puke, but hopefully it goes by as fast as last week. 

Until next time,

— Justin