Amster, Amster, ____, ____, ____. Listening: *Dutch radio with trancey electronica, Avril Lavigne and KC & The Sunshine Band*
Just a quick note: I arrived here in Amsterdam at around seven thirty in the morning, got spun around trying to figure out which bus to take to my hotel, decided to say "fuck it." and walked, checked in, got breakfast, crashed and now I'm shooting out e-mails before I go check out where Anne Frank chilled for long bouts of time to avoid persecution. Should be interesting. I don't know what today really holds for me. I think the plane ride still has me in a daze. Blah! I have to decide whether I'm hot or not too. Who knows? Anyways, Ms. Frank awaits. I hope she's not waiting too long.
My Bags Aren't Packed, But I'm Ready To Go Listening: I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again. Oh babe, I hate to go.
It's Monday, but it's Friday for me too. No work for me until a week from Friday. My flight leaves at six forty in the evening tomorrow. That means that I have to be at the airport at four forty. Hopefuly I'll have time to do everything that I need to do. Yeesh! I have to do a crapload before I leave. I have to do a bunch of stuff to go get an apartment. The application for the apartment that I want is due on the eighth, two days after I get back, or really a day and a half.
I still have to pack and figure out exactly what I'm taking. The weather is going to be anywhere between sixty and eighty degrees. That's right on the cusp of long pants and shorts. I figure I'll bring one pair of nice pants, one pair of jeans, one pair of raver pants, and one or two pairs of shorts. On the plane ride, I'll be wearing my big ol' raver jeans. The reason that I'm wearing those is because when I pop out of the airport, I want to be able to stick my passport in a random pocket and not have to worry about it. Those pants have so many pockets that it'll be like an over complicated shell game. Which pocket does he have his passport in? Which pocket does he keep his cash in? Does he keep it in more than one pocket?
I picked up film for my camera and a map of Amsterdam during my coffee break today. I found out that Amsterdam really is only two to three square miles. It'll take nothing to walk to and from anywhere. My father's friend from work told me that it's at most a twenty minute walk to anywhere in Amsterdam. I bought candy for the plane ride and a new toothbrush for minty clean breath. Well, the toothbrush is to have the minty clean breath. The candy is just for kicks. I bought blo-pops to bring with me to Dance Valley. You never know when you'll need a lollipop.
This weekend was kind of fun. Friday, after practice, I had dinner at Vinny Testa's with Hulk, Sassy, Mr. E-Bay and Hardcore. We spent a lot of time talking boat politics and stroke technique. I have to say I am a wikkied irritable guy when it comes to sports teams. I'm crazy competitive and I want my team to be that way too. After dinner, Hulk, Sassy and Mr. E-Bay went to Coolidge Corner to go see a movie. I instead hopped a ride back home with Hardcore and ended up talking moer boat politics.
The next day, I got up early to go to a wedding in Maine. We left Boston at around eleven, and due to traffic, we didn't get into Waterville until around three or three thirty. The wedding was at four. We had to change and stuff, and we didn't get to the farm where the wedding was until about a quarter past. The ceremony had already ended. So, we just stayed and partied. Oh, I have to tell you who went up with me. It was myself, The Violent One and Ye-ah in one car and OMG, Bombadier, Chocoholic and Silent Lush in the other car. The reception was really low key and a lot of fun. We got to meet the new breed of kids at Colby. To me, it seemed like my friends were all Saved By The Bell< and they were all Saved By The Bell: The New Class. Still an amusing show, but quite inferior to my vintage. There was this one girl who was really cool. She's going into her junior year and is from Vietnam. Poise, grace, beauty and seemingly intelligent. Very fine. Very young. Hands off!
I didn't get home from Maine until around one in the morning. So, I went straight to bed only to wake up six hours later to get to practice. I was a bit late, but I wasn't late enough to miss the boat. Amazingly enough, there was a full boat, twenty paddlers. It was a lot of fun. Furthermore, we went through the locks into the Boston Harbor. It was there that I ran the practice from the last row. Since my replacement needed practice, she was up on the drummer's seat and I told her what she needed to do. On one race piece, Hardcore hit a wave with his paddle and the wave knocked him off of the boat. It was kind of dangerous and kind of amusing at the same time.
Anyways, I have to go. I'll prolly log one entry from Amsterdam while I'm there. It won't be anything serious. The serious stuff will come when I get back. Ookie. Laterz.
I've Got More Issues Than a Seventh Grade Girl Listening: Shiny disco... disco... disco... disco...
Today was another day of hard work. I spend most of my day spinning my wheels trying to research issues that I just couldn't find answers to. It was horrible. I've got a stack of papers about an inch high of inter-relating issues. It was unfortunate. I just found out that one of my primary contacts was going to be leaving his company to go work at a place closer to home for him. Good for him, but I'll miss his correspondence. As much as I love talking to all of the girls where he works, he was always the go-to guy who I would call when I needed something done now. I think that he thought the same way about me. I think that he was one of the smarter people that I dealt with at work. Sucks that he's leaving though.
Anyways, everything at work got messed up today. Hopefully everything will be fine on Monday. If it's not, well, I only have one day to deal with it before I go to Amsterdam.
Tonite, I have practice and then I have a meeting to go to for Dragon Boat. After that I have some business to take care of. Hopefully if the business isn't as time consuming as I think it will be, I'll be able to go to Maine for a wedding. If not, then I guess I'll be staying in town. Anyways, it's time to go. Everyone is gone. I just have to get home to try to start to take care of this business. The sooner I can take care of it, the better.
Same Thing Over And Over And Over Again Listening: Hold on. Hold on to yourself. This is gonna hurt like hell.
I am so bored today. I've been doing the same research all day long today. I'm not getting anywhere with it and I'm kind of starting to get frustrated. Grrr. I know, I know... I'll be in Amsterdam in less than a week, but I have tons upon tons of things to do before I even think about packing for Amsterdam. It sucks like that. I've got two more full days of dragon boat practice, a wedding in Maine, stuff that I need for my trip to shop for, and I have a hundred and ten things at work that need to get done before month end so that I can leave here and not come back to a mess. I hate that shit.
There was a black out last night. I opened my eyes this morning and said to myself, "You know, it feels like I should be up already." I looked over at my alarm clock. It began to taunt me with the time flashing on the LCD screen. There had been a power outage. Mutha fucka. I hopped out of bed and looked at my cell phone. Eight o'clock. Mutha fucka. I called into the office and told one of my guys to cover some of my early work. Mutha fucka. I was pissed. I didn't get into the office until a quarter to nine. I know I could have gotten in there a bit sooner, but I figured, I'm already late and have missed a deadline, I might as well take my time now. I was that with classes in college. If I'm late for a class, there's no point in rushing to get there. It won't make a big difference. You're still late. So I got a cup of coffee on the way in.
On the upside, I didn't leave to get coffee later, and I only took a fifteen minute lunch. Actually, I've been not taking lunch for a while now, so I figure maybe I'm owed this sleep in time. No food for a few months and I get a free "sleep in" pass. I wished that was how it worked. That would be bomb-diggity if it did.
Practice was interesting last night. We re-instituted an older stroke called "the snap." Everyone struggled with it. Even the guy who wanted to start it up again couldn't do it. It was ridiculous. It was a downright mess. Oh well, though, right? I have also decided that I want to captain the Hartford race's A-Team. I think I'm going to be a little more hardcore about the practices as well. I'm going to make these people competitive, or rather, I'm going to sift out the people that aren't competitive. I will have a stacked boat. That's just all there is to say about that. I have a whole method planned out. It'll work. Trust me.
Anyways, it's just about time for me to go. I've ignored this tedious work for long enough and now it's time to call it quits and pick it up tomorrow. Blah! I get to train the new guy tomorrow too. He'll be running my funds tomorrow. I wished that he had his own passwords and IDs, so that I could just let him go and do things and ask me about it when he has a question. Alas, no. So, Not much going on on my end. It's time to bounce.
Bodies, Babies, Bands, Boobies, Bare Ass & Cuddles (Not In That Order) (End) Listening: We are each other's destiny.
So, where did we leave off? Oh, yes, very few hours of sleep. Again, we had an early race on Sunday morning. The race was at ten past eight or something gruesome like that, which meant that I had to be checked out of the room and down in the lobby by a quarter to six. It didn't happen until six, though. I was running out the door. My throat felt like ass and I was generally pretty tired. Once I realized how soon the race was, I think endorphins kicked in and I went on an adrenaline high.
Now, what race would be without drama? When I get there (I was riding with Mr. E-Bay and Harley), no one esle was there. The van took off before we did. It was ridiculous. So we were left there to start setting up as much as we could and we had to wait even longer to warm up. Evidently, one of the drivers got lost on the way to the race site so that had to back track and so on and so forth. Furthermore, when they got there, there were still four or five people missing who were staying at different hotels. It was just one big mess. Chaos ensued. My major priority was that I needed to get the people on the team warmed up and if I saw no sign of the missing people, I would have to fill the boat out with whoever I could find.
It turns out that the people from the other hotel had a huge mess to deal with at the hotel and that it wasn't their faul that they were late. There was a general communication breakdown, because our cells didn't really work all that well up in Canada and we couldn't get in touch with each other. We probably would have gotten more results talking to our team mates if we had used smoke signals and banged on hollow logs. While those guys were trying to straighten things out at the hotel, I was freakin' out. I didn't know where four of our best paddlers were. I was in a scramble to fill the boat. When I finally got everyone set and lines up, we walked down to the Marshalling Area. On the way down to the Marshalling Area, Hulk said to me, "If we see them (the four missing), they're out, right?" I said, "Yeah," because if they did show up (which they did), I didn't want to jar the team again by making another switch. So, when we did see them, I said, "You're out," and that's it. I didn't stop for any explanations or to tell them why. I didn't have time to.
So, we went out and raced. We came in last in that semi-final heat, which only got us to the consolation final. Meanwhile, the four who were missing were pretty pissed that they didn't get to paddle in that race. Maverick explained what happened, and I just told her, "Well, there's nothing we can do about it now, except just look forward to the next race." It was true. I harbored no ill feelings towards any of the four that were late. It was just that a set of circumstances allowed this to happen. It really wasn't anyone's fault.They were trying their hardest to get to the site. I was trying my hardest to keep my team together. It just sucked that all of these things happened and people's feelings were hurt. This wasn't about feelings. This was about being able to get on the boat.
The rest of the day, there were some dejected people, not just the four who didn't get on the boat. Blondie was pissed as hell. He was downright livid. I didn't get a good grip on that until I rode back to Boston with him. He actually was so pissed that between races, he went out on a run to try to run off some of the anger. Yeesh! During that time, I just did my best to chill out, which involved some spooning and some grooving and some sleeping. Yah, I maxed and relaxed.
For the next race, we had it all back together for the most part. We had the same line up as the second race. I think some of the people may have been tired and stuff, but I couldn't really tell. In the last race, we placed last, but we finished with our best time of the tournament. It was somewhere around two minutes and eighteen seconds. We hadn't gone under two minutes and nineteen seconds. So, despite the fact that we got last in that heat, we still did really well. As Shutterbug said, "You know what? I say, if you're gonna come in last, come in last in style, and we did just that." I was really proud of the team.
I really think that I learned a lot during this race. I learned that different people have different views on how to organize a team. I realized that whether I like it or not, I am a leader on the team, sometimes I think I'm a leader above the captain of the team. I learned that even if you come in completely dead last, you can still have the best time that you've had all weekend. I've learned that I don't have to hang out with the team to be an important part of the team. I learned that I can drink all night until three in the morning, get up before six in the morning and still have enough voice and energy to drum for two full competitive races. Yeah, baby!
The ride back was pretty uneventful. Blondie and Blondie's spouse stopped for pastries and we stopped at Duty-Free. There was a lot of talk about the team, but I ended up just passing out. I guess that's what happens when you drink all night until three in the morning and then you get up before six o'clock to go and race in two heats. You just sort of bomb out. I think the drama took a little toll on me too.
We got in at ten in the evening, I went inside, got nagged by my mother, took a shower and went to sleep. I was so exhausted.
Monday, we found out that we would be getting a new guy in our group and he would be here on Tuesday. I was psyched. This would take some of the work load off of the other workers. I was so psyched. Also, on Monday, I ran into Boo in the lobby of my office building. She is very pregnant. Five months, in fact. Wow, did she look good! If you know anything about me, I think that like ninety-five percent of all pregnant women are beautiful. It didn't hurt that I thought Boo was cute beforehand. But she is five months pregnant with a boy. I'm so happy for her. She really wanted to have a kid when she was my boss. Now she's going to have one. YAY! YAY for her! I can see her being a really great mother too. *sigh*
Tuesday, the new guy came in. He was pretty humdrum altogether. He was only here to meet the team. SCUBA is out all week, so I get to take the helm. Yeah, how sick is that? Pretty damn sick, if you ask me. I should be nowhere near authority lest you wish someone to lose an appendage.
Today was also humdrum. I had one of my workers training the new guy while I dealt with a million differnent other things (none of which were work related). So that's where I am now. If there's practice today, I'll be at practice. If not, then I'll be having dinner with OC Girl and Shutterbug at OC Girl's place. For some reason I'd be more looking forward to the latter than the former. There's been a lot of power maneuvering throughout the club. Civil unrest, if you will. Things are getting interesting and I think that I might want to keep my head down despite what I really want. Anyways, time is up. I gots to go. If you're interested in seeing any pics from Montreal, go here and click on the Montreal_2003 link. There are some really good pictures of our really tight second race. Page one, column one, row four, we're in lane three. I'm hunched over the drum and we're leading. It's a kickin' picture.
Bodies, Babies, Bands, Boobies, Bare Ass & Cuddles (Not In That Order) (Con't) Listening: You never heard a single word that I said to you tonite.
On Saturday, we had to be up wikkid early due to the fact that it was predicted that we were going to be seeded last. Yee haw! No expectations. But, we had to be in the lobby by like six in the morning. It sucked really badly. I was not ready to get up when I got the knock on the hotel room door, but I got up anyways. I think that the lack of sleep really went to my head and I temporarily went insane. I became very punchy and energetic once I hopped out of bed. I only really knew two of the girls in my room, and one of them, I don't think, likes me very much. Oh well. You can't please them all, right? Anyways, we were down in the lobby at six... It sucked. I barely had time to gulp down a cup of coffee before we headed off to the race site.
When we were loading up the van, I saw Palms, but I saw no Fester. I was like, "Where the hell is Fester?"Apparently, the day that they were all supposed to leave Boston, Fester lost his passport. Damn that sucked. I mean, not only did it suck for him not to be able to come up to Montreal to party and eat and so on and so forth, but we kind of needed him. We had a limited number of people on the right side of the boat that were any good. This is not to say that our entire right side was bad. They were just less experienced. I mean, with people like OC Girl and Fester out of commission, we were significantly weaker on the right side.
Anyways, our first race was at twenty past eight and we barely had any time to warm up before we needed to make our way to the Marshalling Area. We were about four paddlers down on the A-Team, but we managed to pick up some people from Philly to be on our team for these races. There was a guy from the Philadelphia Men's National Team, and a girl who trains with them. Very strong individuals.
So, our first race was rather unfortunate. It didn't feel right at all. I was having issues over the leadership of the team. Prior to this race, I decided that I would not take a leadership role for this race and that I would do my job as drummer and would go out and have fun. Hulk was trying to get me to make calls for him. That ticked me off. I was already tired of no one really listening to me on or off the boat, so I wasn't willing to shout at the wind. When it came down to it, there was a conference between Hulk, Shutterbug and I where it all came out and I called Hulk out on being a leader. I actually got pretty annoyed. I hate it when people who are leaders don't actually lead.
Between the first and second race, Duclimer, Blondie and I went out shopping for gear. I really didn't intend on buying anything, but I came out of the deal with a dry-fit shirt and a fleece regattasport t-shirt. It was a pretty good deal. The fleece was silver and made my arms look huge. Unfortunately Hulk had to go out and get the same one. I guess I can't really blame him. I really do look that cool in it and everyone wants to be like me. That and the fact that Blondie and I got the same navy and orange dry-fit t-shirt. Oh well.
The second race kicked ass. It was a close race all of the way through. We were pulling hard and we powered up even before the half-way mark. Everyone was huffing and puffing by the end and the result of the race was a little odd. See, we placed second in the heat, but we had the faster time. I don't know what the deal with that was. It kind of ticked me off.
All day, I was trying to call Au Pied de Cochon for reservations and all I was getting was an answering machine that had a message in French *cough* Freedom *cough*. Finally, after the second race, I was able to connect with the restaraunt and make reservations for ten people. I really didn't want any more than ten people to go, or rather I didn't even want ten people to go, but I did want certain people to come with me, which meant that we towed some people along. The party was as follows (starting with me and going clockwise): Me, the girl I didn't have a name for at Chez Paree, Shutterbug, Dulcimer, Stogie, Ma4, X-Rave, Teeth, Blondie's Spouse, and at the head of the table was Blondie. We ordered everything family style and we got a ton of food. We had fois gras two ways. I would spell it all out for you if I had it all written down. One of the ways was pig knuckles stuffed with fois gras, another was French *cough* Freedom *cough* fries smothered in gravy (made with fois gras) with a piece of fois gras on top. We also had a lamb shank, a large platter of shell fish, a guinea fowl, duck and I'm sure a few other things. I really can't wait to see the pictures. We ordered three bottles of wine between us, which isn't all that much, but it was just enough for me. We each got dessert. Since it was Blondie's birthday, we let him have the last creme brulee in the house. I ended up splitting a plate of strawberries and chocolate sauce with X-Rave. There was some interesting play between me and some of the girls involving the strawberries, but we won't talk too much about that, because what happens in Montreal stays in Montreal.
Following dinner, all of us except for Blondie and Blondie's Spouse tried to get into Super Sexe again, but it was too crowded. So, we moved to the next place. No luck there either. We finally went to this one place which wasn't really all that good. I think the porn playing on the TV in the back was more entertaining than the actual strippers. That's a sad statement. Apparently, X-Rave had never seen hardcore porn before and it was up on the TV. She seemed somewhat amused and somewhat disturbed.
After a while, people peeled off until it was just myself, Stogie, Teeth, Ma4 and X-Rave. They wanted to go dancing, so we walked around looking for a place. We passed the Dome and a few other bars. Finally, we settled on going to Stereo. I had been there last year, so I knew what to expect. There were a few more people this time than last time. The music was good, the drinks were cheap and I was happy. There was some interesting play going on that night. Fun stuff.
By the time I got home that night, it was past three in the morning. Our race on Sunday was early as well, so you can tell how much sleep I got that night too.
Bodies, Babies, Bands, Boobies, Bare Ass & Cuddles (Not In That Order) Listening: The winner takes it all. The loser's standing small.
I am exhausted. I woke up for work a bit late. It's a good thing that I showered last night, cause I didn't have time to do it this morning. I think I'm doing altogether pretty well considering that I got a total of five hours of sleep over the course of Friday night and Saturday night. I think I'm doing damn good.
I had an excellent weekend. Friday was chilled out until about an hour and a half before I was supposed to leave the office. About an hour and a half before I left, people just kept putting stuff on my desk to do. Luckily, I was able to find a window where I had finished everything and no one was in sight with something to drop into my in-bin. So, I snuck out and that was that.
When I got home, I threw everything together and waited for Blondie to come pick me up. I was home by one. I was ready by half past, but by the time Blondie picked me up at two, we picked his Spouse up at a quarter past, we stopped for roast beef sandwiches at a place in Charlestown at two thirty, we found I-93 again and were on our way, it was already past three. Wow, did it take a long time to leave. It was ridiculous.
About halfway through the ride, Blondie's Spouse got a massive craving for soft serve ice cream. So, we took a detour through Montpelier, Vermont, New London, Vermont and Barre, Vermont in search of good soft serve ice cream.
By the time we reached Montreal, it was past nine o'clock. I was supposed to meet up with Dulcimer to go to Chez Paree. So, I call her and get voicemail. Since I couldn't get in touch with her and since I hadn't had dinner, Blondie, Blondie's Spouse and I went to the African Festival that they were having to go check out the music and to get some eats. The music was good, the beer was mediocre, and the shopping was alright. I walked out of there with a wooden ring for five Canadian bones. It was a good deal.
Finally, I got a call back from Dulcimer. She was just finishing dinner and was going with a group of people to Chez Paree to go scope for Maya. I was like, "Sweet! I'm gonna grab some grub and I'll meet you there!" In a rush, we went back to the hotel, Blondie and Blondie's Spouse changed clothes, and we headed off to find a quick bite. We ended up at this gyro place. I had a chicken gyro, because I got a sample and I was sold.
By the time we headed off to Chez Paree it was past ten. Actually, I think it was eleven. When we walked in, we didn't get charged cover and we walked over to where Dulcimer was. She was with a long list of people Princess-B, Maverick, Teeth, Stogie, Shutterbug, X-Rave and another girl who I can't come up with a name for. They had been there for a while and there was no sign of Maya. Everyone there looked the same. Blonde and fake tits. Yah, that's right, I said fake tittied. It was boring and as Dulcimer said, "It's too classy in here." I love that she said that.
From there, the bulk of the people peeled off back to their hotel and it was just me, Dulcimer, Stogie, Shutterbug, Blondie and Blondie's spouse. Dulcimer decided that she wanted to go to another strip club, so we ended up at Super Sexe. It wasn't anything like I thought it was. It was very segregated. There were two rooms, each with a stage that were separated by a wall. Since we bought a bucket of beers, we somehow got a ticket for a free lapdance. At first, we wanted to get it for Shutterbug, but then we got it for Dulcimer. She was funny to watch. We got this one girl who could actually dance. We saw her up on stage and said, "That one!" She had a kickin' body and knew how to shake it on beat. It was hilarious. Dulcimer, though she's nowhere near innocent, is a bit easily rattled or embarassed. It was just so funny watching her.
Then we got this other girl for Shutterbug. This girl had her nipples pierced and the balls on the end of the barbells were blacklight reactive. It was awesome. She also had a great body. She was incredibly funny too. She had never seen/smelled a clove cigarette (so Shutterbug let her have one), and she was kinda playing back and forth with me as she was dancing for Shutterbug. Shutterbug had a hard time sitting on her hands. Yeah, I did too. After seeing all that and the girl-on-girl show (that's right, I said girl-on-mutha-fuckin-girl action... Live lesbian sex, ha ha. No, really), we all busted out of there and headed to our respective hotels. We didn't get in until half past two. It was a good night of fun.
Where Did The Day Go? Listening: Come, my lady. Come, come, my lady. Be my butterfly, sugar, baby.
Seriously. Where did it go? I must have been doing some serious screwing off. I knwo I made some liner notes for my less than stellar mixes, but that's about it. My brother and mother are going to be in town at eight o'clock-ish. Joy. Joy-joy-joy. Grandparents get back on Sunday. That should be amusing too. BLAH!
I do, however have a fun weekend ahead of me. Now, I also found out that I can take a half day tomorrow so that I can leave earlier. Blondie and his spouse found out that they could leave earlier the other day and they told me that they wanted to leave earlier. So I asked SCUBA and that was that. Anyways, I have to get home. Well, actually I have to do some grocery shopping and then I have to go home. I'm lucky I cleaned last night. I don't think I would have had the time today.
Half day tomorrow. Woo woo. Catch ya on the backswing.
Meaningful Procrastination Listening: Whenever I'm down, I call on you, my friend.
Really quickly... I didn't do a damn thing at work today. I just did the bare minimum and worked on my Amsterdam trip. I have a whole itinerary planned out. I don't mean that I have every minute detail down to the last second. I just have all of my information about where I have to be at specific times, like airports to go place and to pick people up, times to check-in and check-out of hotels. That kind of stuff. I'm really nerding out on it. I'll post the itinerary the day before I leave just so everyone knows where I am.
Last night I had dinner and dessert with Booch. It was overall pretty relaxing. I've generally been pretty laid back since I went to NYC. I don't quite know why, but I've really stopped letting things get to me, mostly due to the fact that I haven't been paying attention. I know I'm supposed to have a review pretty soon, like before I go to Amsterdam, but I don't really care. If SCUBA gets all up on me for letting these other people slide, I'll just tell him that I explained everything to them, asked them to do it and they just don't do it. It's the curse of having the responsibility and no power to back it up. It's not in my job description to babysit. I don't need to do that. If people wanna try to go over my head, fine. As long as they can walk the walk. If they trip, I'm just gonna let them eat asphalt then.
So anyways, I had lots of time to look at Amsterdam stuff. I still have to put together a list of things that I want to see, just so I have some assemblance of direction. I also have to put together a list of things I want to bring back from Amsterdam. I know that I want to buy an Ajax (The Amsterdam soccer team) jersey and some genever (an alcohol much like gin), but I have no clue what else. Maybe I'll buy myself a tulip bulb. I know I have to get a couple of pipes for a couple of my friends. If you can think of anything that you want, let me know and I'll try to pick it up. I wonder if I can bring Gouda cheese back from Amsterdam. I wonder what I can sneak back into the country that isn't quite legal. I'm not talking about drugs so much as I am talking about Cuban cigars and Absinthe liquer. If I could bring those back, it would be a total score.
Anyways, it's time to go home. I have practice tonite. I was invited to a concert, but I can't go because I bailed on practice this weekend in lieu of going to New York. I can't bail on the last practice before the races. That would show even less dedication than the rest of the team has shown me. I can't say that the entire team isn't dedicated, I just don't think most of them are dedicated. Oh well.
In other news... While the dragon boat teams (the A Team and the B Team) are trying to organize separate team dinners, I'm trying to organize my own quiet intimiate dinner. I want to go to a good French restaurant on Saturday night. I'm thinking of either Au Pied de Cochon, L'Express or Club des Pins. I think if I knew which hotel I was staying at, it would be an easier decision. If they're all equidistant from the hotel, I think I'd pick Au Pied de Cochon. It seems to have the better rep and a tastier menu as far as I could see. Mmmmm.... French food.
A Well-Deserved Break Listening: I'm a man of many wishes. Hope my premonition misses.
Well, I'm back from NYC. Both Sunday and Monday were pretty uneventful, which was a good thing. On Sunday, we went to Junior's in Brooklyn for some diner food and some cheese cake. I had a beef brisket sandwich on potato pancakes. Yup, the potato pancakes acted as the bread. It was pretty funky, but pretty cool as well. Very tasty. We also sampled some of Junior's famous cheesecake. I was so full from the sandwich that I could only stomach half of my cheesecake. I saved the rest for later.
After I nearly left the man-purse at Juniors and came back for it, we headed off to Prospect Park. Between the car and the park, we ran into these two little girls and a little boy selling lemonade in front of their house. Of course, there was adult supervision. PJ thought it would be nice to go buy some, so we bought a couple of cups. About five steps from the lemonade stand, PJ decided that he wanted to take a picture with the kids. So we go back and I snap a picture of PJ and the kids with PJ's Digital Elph. One of the kids was rather intrigued with PJ's camera. She seemed to be the ham of the three kids. It was really cute.
After lemonade, we plopped down in the shade at Prospect Park. We had an amusing show put on for us by some unknowing children. They were running around and playing with each other and they didn't even know each other. Apparently this one little girl figured out what this one boy's name was while sitting with her parents, and she just kept calling him over. He looked pretty confused, but he kept going over nonetheless. There was this one adopted Asian kid who had green/blue popsicle stains around his mouth and dribbling down his shirt. When up on his father's shoulder, he would repeatedly "play the bongos" on his father's shiny bald head. His head was getting mighty red, and it wasn't because of the sun.
We tossed around a football, joked around a bit, and I scoped the chicks, as usual. A good time was had by all.
Following the park, we went to PJ's football game. It was amusing seeing them trounce the other team. The other team was piss poor. PJ was the only Asian kid on the field. Everyone else was older and seemed to be Italian. I could have been wrong though. You never know with all of those Brooklyn accents. The could be pale skinned and red haired and I would have thought that they were Italian from their accents. But it was a sad game. PJ's team won by the mercy rule. There were a few nasty hits even though it was two hand touch. Ugly.
Following that, we kicked it back to PJ's apartment and just chilled out for the night. We went out at around eleven o'clock to get dinner at a Taiwanese place near PJ's place and that's pretty much it. I found out that a guy who was a freshman on the varsity soccer team my senior year got drafted to play on the Dallas Burn. At first I didn't believe it, but sure enough, when I went to the Dallas Burn webpage, there was a roster spot and a picture of Andy Rosenband. Sick. Kid had sick skills, could juke the pants off of anyone and their best friend. Apparently he made it to the big ten second team while he was in college and tore the roof off when he transfered from Wake Forest to Ohio. Sick sick sick! Maybe that'll give me incentive to go see a Revolution game when they play the Burn. As of this moment, he hasn't gotten any field time, but I'm gonna bet that he's making bank.
Monday, we just sort of sat around waiting for the courts to call PJ back on a parking ticket that he was contesting and then it was time for me to catch the bus to go home. We stopped by the bubble tea place in Chinatown to grab a quick sip. I ended up getting two. I got a Lychee Black Tea with Nata de Coco and an Almond Milk Tea with Pearls for the road. They had those nifty sealing cups so that I didn't have to worry about it spilling. I drank it at about two hours into my four hour bus ride. It was quite satisfying. Unfortunately there was a dissatsifying part of this trip. At about four songs into my bus ride, my discman lost juice. Batteries had tapped out. Don't you hate it when that happens? I sure as hell do.
I got home at around half past ten, made some calls, watched some TV and attempted to go to sleep. I was tossing and turning until at least three in the morning. I don't know what the deal was. I just couldn't get to sleep. There was a lot of stuff running through my mind, but I don't think that any of it was any more intense than any of the other things that I think about when I'm trying to fall asleep. Hopefully tonite I'll get a good night of sleep.
I spent the bulk of today looking for places to go in Montreal and in Amsterdam. It was kind of fun. It looks like I'll be flying out of Boston on the twenty seventh and will be returning on the sixth. There seem to be more people in on the Dance Valley thing now. Two more people hopped on. I hope they're cool. One of them seems to be from Cambridge, so maybe I'll meet up with her before we go. Anyways, it is most certainly time for me to go. So I shall. *poof*
Three In Seven Listening: And the hero kill the lady with his kiss, with his kiss.
Yesterday, yesterday, yesterday... After talking until three or so, we got up, got cleaned up and headed into the city. First stop, Second Avenue Deli. Finally, on my last trip to visit PJ in NYC, I have gone to a New York/Jewish Style Deli. Yeah, baby! I ordered a meatloaf sandwich on rye (I saw it and I had to have it... I have no clue why.) and a potato kniche. Both were generally pretty good, but really, how can you screw up a meatloaf sandwich. The potato kniche was much bigger than I anticipated. It seems like as of late my eyes have been bigger than my stomach. I don't know what my deal is. The only thing that I can think of is that my lack of scheduled eating times have been catching up to me. The fact that I haven't been eating much at all is affecting the way I can stomach food. I'm so used to eating large quanitities of food that I still order when I can't finish. It's mildly disturbing but I'm sure I'll figure out a way to adapt or to re-grow my stomach. In any case, I finished my meatloaft sandwich (which had some incredibly tasty rye bread) and about two thirds of my kniche. The pickles they served there were decent too. The half sours were ten times better than the dills. The dills kind of sucked ass, but the half sours brought up the bar.
After lunch, we walked from the Villiage to Soho. I was on a mission to find G-Shock watches for my parents and I was determined to complete it. One of the last times I was in town, I went to a store on West Broadway that sold exclusively G-Shock watches and that's where I was planning on going. When we get there, the store's not there. Grrr... I hate when that shit happens. Good places close down too much. It's like society is saying, "You know, ZEN!!!, we just think everythning that you think is great sucks and we'll shut it down!" Well, not really, but it does stink that it happened.
PJ and I then decided to do a little shopping. I ended up coming out of the excursion with a new pair of Adidas Superstars (Shell Toes). I didn't expect to, but they were forty percent off. I paid just under forty bucks. It was fan-tastic. I saw Whoopi Goldberg in Soho and went by the World Trade Center. I have to be honest. There wasn't much to see there. Just some fences, some building materials, a list of names and a lot of tourists. By the time that we finished kickin' it around that area of town, it was a little past four and both of our dogs were tired. My feet were actually aching. That's rare for someone like me. I've spent days walking around Boston non-stop without my feet even twitching. Maybe it was the New York sidewalks.
So, we decided to catch the R train home. Holy shit. I had no clue a subway ride could talk that long. I passed out for most of it (which was a good thing), but it was long as hell. In Boston, the only way that you're gonna spend an hour on the train is if you start at one end and switch at Park Street. Very odd being on a subway train that long.
When we get home, we try to decide what to do. We had talked about movies earlier in the weekend and we're like, "So, maybe we should see a movie." We look online and check out what's playing. The movies that are out at the theater near PJ's place that we're interested in are The Italian Job, The Pirates Of The Carribean, The League Of Extrordinary Gentlemen, and Terminator III: The Rise Of The Machines. So we're figureing out which one we want to see and then we just say, "Hey, why don't we just see as many of them as we can?" After a pretty good dinner of dumplings and noodles at Joe Shanghai, we set off on a mission. We want to see three movies tonite! PJ had it all mapped out. We knew that The Italian Job would be first and that Terminator III: The Rise Of The Machines would be last. The problem we had was with The Pirates Of The Carribean and The League Of Extrordinary Gentlemen. Originally, we flipped a coin and Pirates won, but when we saw the layout of the theater, we opted for LXG. The Italian Job, The League Of Extrordinary Gentlemen, and Terminator III: The Rise Of The Machines were all on one side of the theater, so we wouldn't have to buy more tickets to get in. We were all sneaky and stuff.
All three movies were okay. The Italian Job was probably the least entertaining. I had this, "Yeah... so what?" voice going on in my head for most of it. The League Of Extrordinary Gentlemen was much more entertaining than I anticipated with great special effects and lots of twists and turns. Terminator III: The Rise Of The Machines was good as well, but I was also thinking, "So where is this going?" through the first half of the movie. And let me just tell you... As much as I love her, Claire Danes plays a convincing whiney bitch. All that aside it was a night of fun, a night of achievements and a night of entertainment.
Get The Fuck Outta Dodge Listening: I won't worry my life away. Hey. Ohhh.
Yesterday, I missed the five o'clock bus due to the fact that they were all sold out. I did, however, make it onto the six o'clock bus, which was fine. I spent my four and a half hours on the bus listening to Everything But The Girl and Kevin So (separately, not together, but wouldn't it be cool?), reading up on Amsterdam and talking to Raver Girl about some of the details of Amsterdam. I was passed out for the first hour and a half (which is why I played my Everything But The Girl CD twice). There was a guy next to me who was with a girl who was further back in the bus. Apparently she had a wet seat. I think that if she hadn't had a wet seat I might have traded with her.
I got into NYC at around a quarter to eleven. The traffic was horrendous. This is why PJ was about fifteen minutes late. He had to cross at midtown. It was no good. You could see it as we drove back to Queens. Before heading out of Chinatown, we got ice cream at the most kick ass ice cream place that I've ever been too. They carry a lot of Asian flavour. They have red bean, green tea, almond cookie and lychee ice creams. I couldn't decide, but I definitely didn't want two scoops, so I asked for them to give me half lime sorbet and half longan sorbet. Sooo good. Actually the lime wasn't the best (wasn't the worst either), but the fact that I had longan sorbet made it all better. It was sweet.
Following that, we checked out a few bubble tea places and then headed back to Queens. As usual, we chatted to the early morning. Now we're gearing up to go out for lunch in town and go to Soho so that I can track down some watches for my parents. So glad to be out of Boston. I needed to get away. I wonder how practice went yesterday and on Thursday. I'm going to try to stop worrying about it. We're gonna tank in Montreal. I have no power over it. I should just shut up and drink when I'm there. ^_^ Oh well... Maybe more later.
Real Quick Listening: At the end of the day, I have myself to blame.
I'm about to head off to NYC. It's half past four and I want to catch the five o'clock bus.
Last night I made four mixes. They weren't as good as I wanted them to be. I felt rushed. I couldn't lock down a flow. It was a lot of just rushing. It's not the way a mix is supposed to be.
I'm In The Mix Listening: Lonestar, where are you out tonite?
Today's been a bit better than the rest of the week. I've decided to try to chill out the best I can. I've taken coffee today and I went out at around one thirty to browse through stores to find out what a good price for blank CDs would be. I didn't buy anything, but after looking in the stores and then looking online at online stores, I think I'll have to go to Best Buy for the blank media and Circuit City to buy the sleeves that I want for them. Sometimes you pay more if you get the jewel cases (whether you're buying them separately or together with the media. I hate having to shop around for this kind of stuff.
Today, I read a personal ad that just rocked. It was hysterical and intelligent at the same time. It was on the Boston.com personals, and I decided to buy some credits to check it out and stuff. Maybe I'll hear back. Maybe I won't. I just thought it would be fun to start talking to this girl.
I actually have to go now. I have to make it home by five so that I can start burning CDs for the Montreal trip. These should be some really kickin' mixes. Time to fly.
I Really Need A Vacation Listening: Bring it back, sing it back to me.
It has been getting to me a lot lately... work. Work at work. People at work. Problems at work. I find myself muttering things under my breath. I find myself hiding in my cube. I find other people troublesome. I find everything troublesome. No time for anything. I hate it. When I say I hate it, I mean I hate it all. All of it. I feel as if I'm fighting an uphill battle with some of my coworkers and that I get very little respect. I think that this is what causes me to seem like I have very little respect for them as well. You reap what you sew. But whose job is it to end the cycle?
I have this horrible habit of perpetuating things after I fail at fixing something. I'll try to fix something. I'll work really hard at it, but after all of my effort without result, I'll say, "Fuck it!" to it and I'll give up. When most people give up, they'll do whatever little bit they need to do. I don't even think that I do that. I'll just drop it and leave it. I'll ignore it and I'll let it fester. Soon, it'll start to mold and rot until it's a pile of goo stinky and hairy all over the floor. That's what's happening at work right now. Relationships that I have tried to fix have fell through and I'm letting it drop. They've started to fester and rot. It's no good.
So, in general, I haven't felt like work is a particularly healthy place for me to be these days. I've been coming in early. I've been too busy to take lunch. I've been staying late. I've been dealing with bullshit issues. I've been cleaning up messes. I've been making a few of my own. I just really think that there's gotta be a healthier environment for me. I just wished that I knew where it was, what it was, and what measures I need to take to be there. I look at job websites and I don't see anything all that exciting. I saw this one great job in San Francisco, but it only paid twenty Gs. It was nothing nice. San Francisco's cost of living is just about as high as Boston's. I would have to get a second job and I wouldn't have time to do anything but work and sleep. I don't know if I could pull that off. I'll keep looking though. As strange as it sounds, maybe my parents were right. Maybe I should go down to Disney to work for a year or so. I think that's a last resort though. Maybe I just wanna be anywhere but here.
Enough about work. I'll tell you what I did yesterday. After a really rough day of work, I tried to call a number of people to see if they wanted to grub. No one. So I went to Tweeter to exchange my bum CD player and headed home to chill out by myself for a while. I ended up eating some of the Fourth of July picnic leftovers. I had a baby spinach salad, a faux-hito, some hitipi and some veggies. I seriously contemplated opening the bottle of Santa Rita Sauvignon Blanc, but I decided against it because a bottle of wine always tastes better when shared. I had no one to share with. Themz the breakz though, huh?
I chilled out on my couch for a while, watched some TV, and read my Irreverent Guide to Amsterdam Every day I learn something new about the city, but I can never conceptualize it to myself. I don't know how big the city really is. It says that it's about as big as Manhattan, which isn't all that big, but I just want to know if it really is dumb to think that I can walk across Amsterdam either from north to south or from east to west in an hour and a half. I know that sounds a bit arbitrary, but I know I can walk from my house in Cambridge to Downtown Crossing in about an hour. I wanna know how accessable things are going to be there, because their trolley system sounds really complicated. It's like a cross between the T and the taxi cabs in DC. Scary. Zones...
I had called The Violent One earlier to see if she wanted dinner, but I ended up leaving her a voice mail. She got back to me at around nine o'clock. I still really hadn't had anything substantial, so we decided to go to Porter Exchange for dinner. Everything closed just before we got there. Bluefin was the only place that was open. To tell you the truth, I'm not at all a fan of Bluefin. I think it's really second rate Japanese food. I ordered Katsu Don (Fried pork cutlet with egg over rice) and it just sucked. Maybe it was because I had amazing Katsu in Japan. Maybe it was because it was the end of the night.
After that, we went to Johnny D's in Davis Square to pick some stuff up from Kevin So. I think The Violent One is becoming a sort of promotions gal for him. She seems to work hard to promote him. She's got Scoops to donate two tubs of ice cream to a couple of gigs in the coming month and a half. I'm not quite sure what her angle on all of this is, and I'm guessing that it doesn't really matter all that much, but I just wonder what it is. Maybe not everyone is as "gotta look out for numero uno" as I am or as I present myself to be.
So we sat at Johnny D's for a while talking with some of The Violent One's Asian-American Theater Collaborative friends, went to the Diesel Cafe to get some limeade and then headed home. Once again, I could fall asleep to music. That was my night. The weather was exceptional last night. I slept with the window open and the fan on low. It was the perfect temperature. I had the first disc of Ultra Chilled: Three playing as I drifted off. Norah, Coldplay, Beth and Jazzanova ringing through my ears to my subconscious. Peaceful sleep.
Tonite, I'm going to practice. It should be an interesting time. I get to work on drumming with the drummer of the B boat who has never drummed in her life. We're going to be working on her ego and her ascertiveness. It should be interesting since I'll basically be verbally and mentally beating her up in order to get what I need out of her. I hope this works. I'll let you know.
All Riled Up Listening:These are the ways to love me. This is the time I need you to know them. Take these and used them well. Listen to everything they will tell you about me.
Man, work is killing me these days. I mean really killing me. I'm getting all stressed out and I'm just getting frazzled. There isn't enough time in the day to get done everything that I need to get done. There's too much to do. I've got task upon task upon task upon task to do, some that date back to last month. I hate it. I hate not being able to get it all done and I hate not having time to screw off like I used to. Maybe that's the killer. Back before people left, I had plenty of time to surf the internet and look at other opportunities, but I didn't as much as I should have. Now that I don't have the time to, I'm wishing that I had. It's killing me. Man, I dread coming into work every day and I dread doing my work and I dread dealing with everyone who's nit picking and who question my methods. I dread people screwing with my mojo. I just wish they would all go away. Yet, I sit here at work typing away at my computer.
It's half past four and people are still pestering me about things. I'm just trying to write my blog. That's all I want to do. I'm trying to hold it together until Friday when I skip town. I think it'll be good for me. This weekend in NYC, next weekend in Montreal, and two weekends after that I'll be in Amsterdam.
I don't know what I plan to do in NYC. I'm assuming that it'll just be a lot of chillin' with PJ. The only thing that I need to do is go to the G-Shock store in Soho for my parents to see if I can find watches like they're looking for. They want really sturdy diving watches for when they go snorkling on their cruises. PJ says that he's been packing a lot lately. I'm gonna guess that it's gonna be barren when I get there. Just a barren muggy apartment in Queens. Heh.. We'll find something to do though.
Montreal might be a wash as far as racing is concerned. I just got the roster for the advanced boat and it bites. We have a million lefts and not so many rights. We don't have a solid six to set as timers/pacers let alone six powerhouses. We're gonna be screwed. Whoever thought of this whole "on the advanced team based on attendance" surely was on crack. It wasn't me, that's for sure. I can pull my weight (in time at that). I figure I'll just go out partying and stuff. I'll go have some quality French food and maybe do some clubbing. I'm catching a ride up with Blondie and his Spouse. Should be much less annoying than being with the rest of the team. I still have no clue who I'm rooming with. I have a list of people that I wouldn't want to room with but I think more than people that are unpopular with me, I think that there will be people that I'm unpopular with.
Amsterdam... Well, Amsterdam is Amsterdam. I'm gonna take that one as it comes. I'll ride with it. I've been reading up and I know I'm going to have to try genever, croquettes and herring when I'm there. Who knows what else I'll try? *Wink wink nudge nudge*
Tonite, I don't know what I'm going to do. When I leave here, I'm going to go to the Sprint Store to pay my cell bill and then I'm going to Tweeter to exchange my discman. It's already started to wig out on me. I would consider that when my discman will stop reading my discs after a few seconds and will tell me that the battery is fully charged while in the cradle and is at only one bar when out of the cradle, I think there is a problem and I'm going to use that extended warranty that I purchased. Damn the bad products. Why is this shit happening? I think it may be that one of my burnt CDs has a virus on it or something and it infects the computer in the discman, but that just seems really far fetched. I know it's not the way that I'm carrying it or anything like that. I'm VERY gentle with it. *sigh* I hate having to do this.
Anyways, I need to leave. I must go. It's time to bug out. Laterz, kiddiez.
What I Know And What I don't Know Listening: Do you ever get me?
Okay, here are the two things that I wanted to write about earlier...
First, mix CDs. See, ninety percent of all mix CDs are exactly alike. Of the other ten percent, half are really good and half are really bad. Mix CDs today rely too much on vocal hooks and catchy synth loops. There are too many people pushing anthems, which are good for their own purposes, but they're really not what's going to make a mix CD good. It'll make the CD more marketable to the teeny boppers, but it won't make a CD good. Most of the people producing mix CDs these days are doing just that. They're ignoring the layering in lieu of the hooks. They're producing cotton candy for Joe Schmoe's ears. DJs should be fousing in on what good music is and what good mixing technique is. It's the layering of the music that is missing in today's mixes. If I could do it, I would be making deep and complex mixes to blot the top off of any Louie DeVito. I just feel like it's all done downhill from the days of Sasha and Digweed's Norther Exposure II.
The other thing that I have been thinking about is that I don't know what to do when a friend hits hard personal times. It seems as of late that a few of my friends are hitting real rough patches in their lives. They confide in me, the show a stiff upper lip to the world, and I know that they're not doing well. You'd never guess.I have this one friend who just started confiding in me and I can't even fathom her prediciment. I don't know what else to say that, "I'm sorry" and "If you need to talk to anyone, you can talk to me." I know that no hug will make this problem better. I know that nothing I can say will ease the pain. No one would ever guess that this is going on with this girl. It's rough and I don't know what to do other than just be who I always am, the jester and the friend. I don't know. It's just weird. I feel so helpless. I am so helpless. I wish that I could do something.
So, that's what I wanted to get off of my chest. A double post today, because last week sucked balls.
A Pain In The Neck Listening: Feels just like the fourth of July.
Well, I was going to write about some heavy stuff, but I lost track of time on my day off, and not in a good way. I got up at around ten thirty on Thursday and went to do laundry. All of my laundry. There ended up being six loads of laundry. It was sick and disgusting. Blah! I was there for a good two and a half to three hours.
After I did laundry, The Violent One, who was given a half day of work by her company, and I went to Harvard square to catch Booch for lunch. We wanted to go to Bartley's Burgers, but they where closed. So, we went to Pho Pasteur instead. It was cheap. It was fine. We ran into a friend from Colby that we hadn't seen in a while. That was nice too. It turns out that she was taking an immunology class at Harvard over the summer.
First Booch bounced, then our friend from Colby, then it was The Violent One and then me. I ended up walking back to my house from Harvard that day in the heat. To be honest, it wasn't all that bad. But by the time I got home, it was time to go to practice. Yeah, that's right. I went to practice on Thrusday. I didn't really want to, but I had to train this one girl on our team to be a drummer. I have serious doubts about her abilities. Others have voiced their concerns as well. That sucks. Forgive me for a second, because I'm about to sound conceited. It really sucks that we have no one else on the team who can do this job nearly as well as I can. I really don't need to be in this position. I think that I should be paddling given the talent that we have on the boat. We've got a lot of dead weight, and I just think I can paddle harder than a lot of the people who are facing me on the benches. I mean, don't get me wrong. I like being in command of the boat, but sometimes I feel like I could get out and push faster than they could paddle. Ridiculous. Training this chick was like pulling teeth. She has no initiative. She has even less confidence. She has no clue how to demand attention. She has no clue how to demand respect and no clue how to get a group of people moving. During the practice, it was if I had my hand stuck up her ass using her as a puppet. I hate that shit. I don't think that anyone wants a puppet as a leader, but then again, I'm wrong about everything. This girl has a lot to prove to me and even more to prove to the rest of the boat. That's where she has to do her work. She has to prove to the boat and to me that she deserves our respect. She has yet to do that.
Friday, I got up early and headed to the grocery store to pick up some stuff for the fourth of July picnic that OC Girl and I had planned. It started out as the two of us and then Ye-ah joined in then Booch, Carpenter, Shutterbug and finally another guy from swing dancing. We had a ton of food. I made hitipi brought fresh fruit and veggies, some wine, some iced oolong tea, some lemonade and ingredients for salad like baby spinach, cucumbers, green peppers, oil and vinegar. OC Girl made a Quiche Lorriane, made brie sandwiches. Carpenter brought cherries, some beverages and some hummus. We had a lot of food and we were all stuffed by the end.
At around six, OC Girl and Shutterbug got on the dragon boat and headed off to the other side of the river to meet more dragon boaters. They were all going to watch the fireworks from the boat. I originally had a spot reserved on the boat, but I decided to chill with the non-dragon boating friends. We napped and chilled most of the day. Booch cut her foot on a nail on the dock. Some firemen treated her with water and with a bandage. It was a real ghetto first aid job, if you ask me. For the fireworks, we moved down to the docks. It was rather amusing. The people up at the street level were all leaning on the railing by the river. When the fireworks started, they figured out that the trees lining the street were blocking their view of the fireworks. So, they had to move to the street to see the fireworks between the buildings and the trees. Okay, I know it doesn't sound all that amusing, but I kinda thought that it was. The fireworks themselves were okay. Being that I had been to Disney World on a number of occasions, I guess I'm spoiled. I have to say that I liked the Disney fireworks a lot more. I mean on any day of the year and twice on New Years. Disney beats the pants out of almost every fireworks display that I have ever seen. Maybe it's how they put the music to it. Maybe it's the way that there are some points where the fireworks are so bright that it rivals that brightness of daylight. Either way, I just thought that most of the fireworks were pretty hum drum. I'm a snob. I know it. I just found it amusing how much ninety percent of the crowd was oohing and ahhing while I was yawning.
Since we were on the Cambridge side of the river, it was pretty easy to get home. I think it took half the time that it took last year when I was at the Esplanade. When we got there, Carpenter brought out a set of fireworks that his father had given to him for Christmas. Don't ask me. We just lit them. At first I was pretty worried about setting a neighbor's house on fire, but when I saw how it was going off, I realized that they were just small fireworks. By the time I walked in my door it was half past midnight and I dawdled around until about two or so. I was in the shower for a good half hour. It's okay. I wasn't using any hot water. Cold shower, not for the traditional reasons. I was hot and sticky from the heat and the sunscreen. I needed some good ice cold refreshment that was more all encompassing than a glass of iced tea.
I woke up late on Saturday, at about one thirty or so. Again, I screwed around for a while and finally got my ass in gear. I went down to Haymarket and to Chinatown to pick up some supplies for dinner on Sunday. Before I knew it, it was time to go to Davis to meet Ye-ah for Silent Lush's twenty first birthday pub crawl. I was tired before I even got to the Burren. Before we had even gotten out of the T station at Davis Square, I spotted her. Little. Yeesh. I had no clue that she was coming. It was alright. I didn't have to really speak to her. I really hold onto things. I know it's not all that attractive or endearing, but it's how I end up rolling. Anyways, those in attendance were Ye-ah, Silent Lush, OMG, Bombadier, Glare, Totoro, Booch, Little, and a couple of other folks that were rather non-descript. Booch showed up late and left early. Glare and Totoro left early as well. The Violent One showed up pretty late and then the two of us left after the fifth pub. I was dead exhausted and I didn't even want to drink. It was good that I went home though. I don't think I would have woken up on Sunday if I hadn't gone home with The Violent One.
Sunday, I woke up for practice. It was a relatively small practice. The timing was for shit. It was unbelievable. One girl made a comment about how my warmups were tough even before I started warmups. See, now, these people have worked with me for the past few months and they should know me better. Don't question what I do in practice or I'll make it ten times harder than you will ever imagine. It was because of this that I made warmups especially cruel. We did two hundred jumping jacks and three sets of twenty pushups and forty situps. That's right. All of that... In the heat. I'm a bastard, but I would have done a normal warmup if people had kept their mouth shut. If you want to complain about my practices, I'll give you something to complain about. That's all I have to say about that.
After practice, I had lunch with Fester and Sassy. Surprise, surprise, we talked about dragon boat. Nuff said.
After that I tried to get ground pork at the Harvest in Central Square, but to no avail, so I just went home, called The Violent One, showered and waited to be picked up to do last minute food shopping. Sunday night I planned a dinner for most of my foodie friends. It was a lobster dinner Chinese style. In attendance were Booch, Fester, OC Girl, Silent Lush, Bombadier, OMG and The Violent One. I roughed up my hands pretty bad as I hacked up the lobster alive. I guess I deserved as much. I was ripping them limb from limb alive. The prep work took just about the amount of time that I thought that it would. The actual cooking time took much longer. We finally sat down to eat at about eight thirty. We had lobster in black bean and garlic sauce, snow peas stir fried in garlic, beansprouts stir fried in pork fat, and edamame. For drinks, some people had the iced oolong tea, some people had some of the riesling that I bought and we also made some faux-jitos (like a mojito without the rum). For dessert, OC Girl made a mango pudding with a raspberry sauce. Girl is so crafty. Fester brought a muscat which was alright, but a bit sweet for my tastes. I have a bottle and a half of it in my fridge if anyone wants a taste. Everyone left right around eleven and I was in bed reading The Irreverent Guide To Amsterdam book until half past midnight.
I had to be at work early this morning. One of my workers was out for the day. The other worker is going to be out tomorrow. I'm going to New York to visit PJ this weekend and won't be in on Monday. Man... I can't even begin to descibe to you how I don't want to be here. My neck has been killing mes since I got up this morning. I think I slept on it wrong. Tomorrow, I get to get up and do it all again. Grr. Practice got cancelled for today, so I'm going to wander around the city. Who knows where my ventures may take me. It should be nice out. I haven't been out all day though, so I don't really know.
Someone Just Shoot Me Listening:Tell me do you want a revolution? Whoot whoot! Do you want a revolution? Whoot whoot!
Today I was at work late, because not only did work suck, but I spent a long time writing a really long blog about the past five days only to have it be erased by blogger. Fuckin' sucked. It pissed me off something fierce. So, I'll give it to you in short form.
Friday: --Went to practice. --Focused on individual rows of paddlers. --Booked it home. --Showered. --Had dinner with Booch at Roka. --Met Harley on Landsdowne Street. --Went to see Carl Cox spin at Avaland's Fifth Anniversary Party. --Set was iffy, peak was good. --Saw all of my club-working friends.
Saturday: --Woke up late. --Cleaned the house. --Got my hair streaked red... Looks cool. --Hung out with Carpenter. --Bought two new CDs (DJ Rap and DJ Colette)
Sunday: --Went to practice. --Got ticked that it ran late. --Booked it to my house with OC Girl. --Showered (separately). --Changed. --Hopped in The Violent One's car --Drove to have brunch at the Blue Room with Booch, Glare, Totoro, The Violent One and OC Girl. --Went to Copley Sunday Swing --Hung out with swing dancers. --Called it a night.
Monday: --Work sucked. --Was in a meeting for 2 hours. --Went to practice. --Practice sucked. --Had dinner with Blondie, Blondie's Spouse, Fester, Harley and Hulk. --Blondie's Spouse (I really have to get a better name for her) talked with me about my cafe idea and was interested in maybe investing, but I would have to start crunching numbers.
Tuesday (Foodie's Night Out): --Work sucked. --Spent a lot of time trying to blog. --Blog got erased. --Bought a guidebook for Amsterdam. --Went to dinner at Helmand with OC Girl, Glare, Totoro, Booch, Carpenter, Emeril and three other swing dancers. --Gorged myself on yummy food. --Showed OC Girl where the dock was for the Fourth of July. --Waddled home with a full belly. --Gave Ye-ah back his refridgerated stuff. --Called it a night.
Today: --Got my ass kicked by work. --Got my ass kicked by work. --Got my ass kicked by work. --Got my ass handed to me at work. --Got raped by work. --Was left for dead bleeding helplessly on the ground at work. --Went to practice. --Was in a foul mood at the beginning of practice. --Mood improved over practice. --Watched the team have a good workout. --Packed it in. --Had dinner with Fester at The Border Cafe.
That has been the past few days. I will elaborate on some thoughts that I have been having tomorrow. This mostly involves the anatomy of mix CDs and helplessness that I feel sometimes in respect to wanting to help friends in specific situations. I'll get to it tomorrow.
Okay, I just wrote a huge post and Blogger fuct it. Mofugga. I had a rather long post regarding the weekend, Monday and a few other things that were rather heart-felt. I did, however, begin working on the food pages... Check it out here: ZEN!!! Nourishment. I know that some of the bigger JPGs aren't working, but you get the idea. I will put up the recipes later. For now, I'm going home. Maybe I'll write later.
