Just When You Were Okay Being Single... Listening: And I shall drive my chariot down your streets and cry, "Hey, it's me. I'm dynamite and I don't know why."
Holy shit, did I do nothing on Sunday and most of today? Yes. Yes, I did.
Today, all I did was go out for bubble tea with The Violent One and then cook dinner for The Violent One and Her Majesty. It was all pretty humdrum. I did make killer omelettes over the past two days.
Okay, I just wrote for an hour about how after Saturday's dinner, the question of "Why is ZEN!!! single?" was asked and the statement of "If I looked in ZEN!!!'s bathroom, and given the dinner he cooked, I would think that ZEN!!! was gay." I was not happy about either idea. I've been trying to be chill being by myself, and questions raised just gave me more reasons in my mind why I am single. I'm trying not to think about being single. I'm not. I'm just trying to live my life by my rules and standards, not everyone else's. I don't need people giving me reasons why I'm single or pointing out that I am single. It's not what I need right now. It doesn't mean that I would turn my back on something that presented itself to me. It just means that I don't want to constantly be thinking about my singleton-ness. I don't need my friends getting me thinking about it.
So the reason I deleted the five or six long paragraphs is because it sounded whiney and made it seem like I was proclaiming at the top of my lungs something that seemed like I was just trying to deny it. And that's not the case. I think I'm just frustrated. With that, it's bedtime.
Can Someone Get Me Some Oxygen Listening: Is there anyone out there cause it's getting harder and harder to breathe?
It's Sunday. I woke up at two in the afternoon. My house is in shambles. Well, at least it's better than it was last night.
Last nigth after 24 hours of shopping, moving stuff around my apartment, a bit of panicing and a helluva lot of cooking, Fester and I had our five course tasting dinner. It was kinda cool. I had never transformed my apartment into a banquet kind of arrangement. I had to movemy futon and bring in Fester's beer die table (not that he knows what beer die is. The atmosphere was killer. It was all chilled out. I had candles burning and jazzy music playing throughout my apartment. Everyone was dressed up nice-ish. It was biz caz, so no one was scuzzy looking. I think Photogenic's boy went over the edge by wearing a tie. I guess different definitions.
When the guests (Digitaldewi, Booch, Glare, Totoro, Her Majesty, The Violent One, Photogenic and her boy) arrived, we were nowhere close to being prepared. I barely had all of my stuff prepped. In fact, when I buzzed Digitaldewi up, I was only a quarter of the way through the prep work for the entree. I guess I should give you a rundown of the menu.
For the apps, we had roasted duck breast on asian slaw, goat chesse wrapped in bacon, a chilled bulgar wheat salad and a scallop ceviche. The roasted duck was okay. I think it could have been done better if we had been better with timing. We opted to do th roasting ahead of time which just sort of threw off the flavour a bit. It was bit too well done. The goat cheese wrapped in bacon was good, but the goat cheese just sort of liquified. Bacon is always good though. I had never tried bulgar wheat in any form or fashion before last night. When Fester came up with the idea of the bulgar wheat salad, I was skeptical at first. I was like, Well, aiight.... If you really want to... It turned out that the bulgar wheat salad was really, really good. It was a lot like cous cous. Very tasty. I think the big winner of the plate was the scallop ceviche. My fishmonger, Carl from New Deal Fish Market on Cambridge Street, really did me well. He spent about ten minutes picking through his jumbo sashimi grade Canadian dry sea scallops. By the time the ceviche got to the table, it was clear that he had been picking through them for ten minutes. I don't think that I have ever had such good scallops. Gaaaaaaad damn!
For the soup, I made gazpatcho. I've made gazpatcho before, because it is my favorite soup of all time. When Glare took Fester and I to Verill Farms out in Concord, I picked up four different types of tomatoes for the recipe. There were orange and yellow tomatoes as well as regular vine tomatoes and plum tomatoes. I really think that the addition of other types of tomatoes gave the soup a broader tomato flavor allowing the fresh herbs that I used to really sit on top of it.
For the entree, we had fish that was also from Carl the fishmonger. It was striped bass filet steamed in parchment paper with dill and ginger tied with a scallion. Let me tell you a little something about these fish. I saw them before they were dismembered and put in my shopping bag. They were beautiful. They were so fresh that their eyes were as clear as glass. Truly amazing fish. When the fish came out of the oven, the smell was really strong. You could really smell the ginger and dill, but the great thing was that the taste on the fish was really quite delicate. The goal was to make the dish extremely aromatic without killing the flavor of the fish. I guess it worked rather well. It was pretty as hell too. As a side dish, we were supposed to have a lemon risotto and asparagus, butI axed the lemon risotto for santiy's sake. The asparagus was braised in the fat rendered from the duck in the first course. Excellent.
The next course was a salad. Fester picked out baby spinach with two kinds of pears, seasoned toasted walnuts and the most killer blue cheese that I have ever had. The dressing was made with reduced port wine and shallots pureed and then mixed with some olive oil. Definitely a winner.
Finally was dessert. On our dessert plate were three home made French truffles, a scoop of pear sorbet, a scoop of mango sorbet, a dollup of fresh made whipped cream, and two trianges of what I dubbed "Mmm Pie." Mmm Pie was phylo dough wrapped around strawberries and rhubarb that I had cooked down with sugar. It was damn good. I also took the juices that were released by the strawberries and rhubarb and reduced them down to a syrup. Soooo good.
Anyways, though it was hella stressful and my apartment was kinda cramped and hot, I had a really good time. Both Fester and I got mad props. People were saying that we should open a restaraunt, but let's be honest. What we did was child's play. I think in order to take our cooking to a restaraunt caliber level, one or both of us would need to go to culinary school. I know that he's not interested in it. Me, well, I'm still trying to deicde if this kind of life is for me. It's extremely stressful. I dunno. It's something I'm thinking about but I'm still unsure.
Something that I always dig is when people dig the music that I'm pumping out of my speakers. Her Majesty really dug the collection of jazz, R&B, and acid jazz that I had compiled for the dinner. I was very pleased that she was very please. I was also very pleased that she wanted to wash dishes. She's a superstar for that. It was amazing how quickly she knocked it down too.
Anyways, I'm still tired and I need to vege some more. So maybe more later. Good times, though. Good times.
Good Ideas Turned Bad Listening: I hurt myself today to see if I still feel. I focus on the pain, the only thing that's real.
Last night, I thought it would be a bright idea for me to forego setting my coffee maker and doing my dishes in an effort to go to sleep forty five minutes or an hour earlier than I would have had I stepped into my kitchen to do the nightly tasks. I figured, Bah! I went for three weeks without coffee when I was sick. Surely I can do it for one more night. How wrong was I?
This morning when I woke up, I needed the coffee something fierce. FIERCE! I needed it mainlined. Excuse me, I'll take my I.V. black. Actually, make that with two sugars. Unfortunately, no such luck. I woke up, took a shower, changed, went to make my lunch and I just stared at my empty coffee maker. Not even a clean carafe. It was in the sink with the dirty dishes. Sonuvabitch!
So, I made it to work. Crawling. I went through the day yawning every three minutes until about half past noon, when I think I finally woke up. To add onto the pain, I was hungry as well. I held out as long as I could and I ended up eating my lunch at a little before eleven o'clock. I never eat lunch that early. I usually eat lunch at half past noon or one o'clock. Eating lunch before eleven is just completely unheard of. Consuming anything before noon is clearly considered a coffee break. Weird. Regardless, lunch held me for the rest of the day, yawning all of the way through.
After work, I went down to Crate & Barrel to check out a pitcher I saw on sale for five bones. For the dinner on Saturday I'm making a sangria recipe that I got from Jaleo in D.C.. I figured that I needed something to make it in, and it just happened that a five dollar glass pitcher would prolly do the job and would be right in my budget range. Amazingly enough, when I went to get the pitcher, one of my friends rang me up with a discount. She's so cool.
When I got home, I checked my e-mail and did a few things around the house. Before long, I got an IM for Digitaldewi. She didn't know how to get to the MIT boat house from Kendall Square Station and needed help when she got there. I told her to call me from Charles MGH and I would come out to meet her at Kendall to take her there. So, I go and meet her and I walk her to her dragon boat practice.
While I was there, I got to see a lot of my old team mates. I talked mad amounts of smack about people while I was there too. It was all in good fun. I mean, there is truth to every joke, no? So, I ended up going down to the docks to talk with some people and I just stayed for the entire hour that Digitaldewi was out on the water. I talked to one of my old team mates who said that during today's practice, she kept thinking to herself My God! This practice is so bad that I want to shoot myself! over and over again. She wants me to field a team for another race this year whether it be under the banner of DBCB or not. I told her that the only way I would wear another shirt that said "DBCB" on it would be if on the back of my shirt it said, "TEAM FUCK" in big letters and under it in small letters it said "sponsored by" and then in big letters again it said "DBCB." There was mad amounts of gripes from these two people that I hadn't talked to in a long ass time.
See, the funny thing about this is that, with the exception of Hardcore, I like all of these people in DBCB outside of the club. We're all friends and we agree to disagree. However when we get into the political arena, I hate their guts. I think they're all complete morons who have no clue what they're doing. Oh well. I guess this is why I walked.
After Digitaldewi finished her practice, it was a complete fluke that I was still around. I had no intention of being around for the entire practice while she was out on the water. I just got talking and catching up and got stuck there. But after everything was said and done, Digitaldewi and I decided to go out for pho. Cheap dinner. It was good, because I really didn't feel like cooking tonite. It was a good alternative.
After dinner, she went to work and I came home. I don't know what happened between then and now besides me washing dishes and setting the coffee (because I refuse to let what happened to me today happen tomorrow. Anyways, it's time to turn in. My eyes hurt and so I figure I should rest them. Time to do a belly flop on the bed. Kiiieeeeeeyyaaaaaaa!
One Away As They All Begin Their Flights Listening: I found myself in the riches (Your eyes, your lips, your hair.) Well, you were everywhere, but I woke up in the ditches. I hit the light and I thought you might be here, but you were nowhere. You were nowhere at home.
Today, I said goodbye to OMG. She's moving to San Diego for a new job and a new life. Much luck, much love, and much envy go to her. Bombadier is going to go out there with her for a week and a half or so and will most likely start pounding the pavement for jobs there too. Bombadier and OMG work really well together. I think that he calms her and she brings him to life. The first of our little crew takes flight onto bigger and better things. Yay for her. It'll be sad not having her mug around during Glare and Totoro's holiday party or gatherings like that. The upside is that with her gone, I will never be in the same place at the same time with Little.
Okay, this one is for The Violent One. Someone said something about PDA phones, you know the ones with the stylus and the whole computer synch-up-a-ma-bob, and I went off on a tangent about what if PDA phones were really phones that were into public displays of affection. So, here's how it goes:
Me: So, then the penguin said, "For crissake, just bend over and I'll pull it out!"
PDA Phone: *Ring, Ring (or instert some crazy polyphonic ringtone)*
Me: Oh, hold on a sec... Hello?
PDA Phone: Heya sexy. *kiss kiss* I love you, you know?
Me: (Whispering) What are you doing? I'm with the guys!
PDA Phone: I know. I just want you to know how much I care. I mean, we have some really meaningful conversations.
Me: Not now, though!
PDA Phone: Why not now? You've whipped me out everywhere else... At home, in the car, in the airport bathroom...
Me: Alright, that's enough of that. You're going back in the pocket!
PDA Phone: Ya want I should go into vibrate mode, and give ya a few calls?
Me: ARGGGGGGGG!
Anyways, that's just for The Violent One. I hope ya enjoy.
So, tonite, I'm leaving the dishes in the sink, which is rare for me. I'm not putting on the coffee. I'm not doing any of that. It's one in the morning and I am going to sleep. Sleep, sleep, sleep. I'm tired as hell today, and I need to train someone again tomorrow. Cheers.
One Step Closer To Walking Away From American Anti-Culture Listening: 'Bout a month ago, I'd never seen your face. I'd never heard your voice, 'bout a month ago.
It's been a nerve racking day today. I've been so stressed out. I know it'll be all over on Saturday though. To explain myself, here is the scenario. About three months or so ago, Fester and I decided that we wanted to try to run an upscale tasting dinner. A month and a half ago, we decided that it should be this coming weekend and it should be a seasonal late springtime menu. Only a couple of days ago, Fester and I really started working hard on the menu. I had a lot of ideas, but I hadn't put anything together until last week. Fester finally set his stuff just yesterday. Just to tell you what kind of menu it's going to be, it's going to be a five course tasting menu. Three apps, a soup, an entree with two sides, a salad and three desserts. It's going to be killer. I'm looking to incorporate a lot of very fresh tastes and a seasonal produce such as asparagus, rhubarb and strawberries. I think Fester and I will be cooking all day long. I was just stressing out looking at my grocery list. I think I'm going into a panic attack just thinking about it.
Last night, Fester sold the two decks, the mixer, the needles, and the coffin that we had leftover from my birthday gift. The two goons who bought them really had no clue what they were looking at. I think that if I were selling the gear alone, I would have started removing stuff from the package without them noticing. He recouped most of his money off the deal, but I think what was most important was that we got the excess crap off of our backs.
Today at work was kind of interesting in and of itself. We got a new worker bee and then he was taken away and replaced by someone from another group. That was weird. At least we won't have to train this guy as much as we would have to train someone from scratch. This new guy, well, even though he has been around the block a little, I still don't feel like he's the brightest bulb in the chandelier. It was a management decision. *shrug* I don't have a real problem with it, because....
Today, I found out that as of June fourteenth, I will be moving to the other side of the business. This means that any problems that my crew is having will no longer be my problem. If they don't follow up on things or look deeper into problems, their problems will grow exponentially. It's about being thorough and micromanaging the problems, not the people. Really, I didn't care that much as to how much or how little my crew was doing to clear their exceptions. I did what I had to do to clear the execptions. I asked them to do things here and there, but they kept coming back with questions, which I answered three quarters of the time and just sort of solved myself the other quarter of the time. What I found disturbing was that the same problems kept popping up and they never actually remembered what I told them. I guess it's not my problem anymore. Soon it'll be FOP's problem.
In addition, one of my old co-workers who moved to the other side of the business about six months ago just got a post in Milan starting in August. It probably helped a great deal that she is an Italian citizen and could speak the language. To top it all off, it's a manager position, which means that she has the power to hire me if there is an open rec. Rockin'! So, as of today, I am one step closer to moving to Europe. Now, once I'm over at the other side of the business for six months, which would put that date at December fourteenth. I can't think of a better thing than to pack up my stuff right before my two week holiday vacation around Christmas and New Years and take off directly from Orlando to go to Milan. I think that would just be so sweet. 6/14-12/14 Six months. Easy time. Let's get this fucker rolling.
I SWEAR I'm Not Looking To Date Anybody! Listening: Your world is different than mine. I’ve got to get over, I’ve got to forget.
Hmm... This week was the first week in a long ass time that I drank three nights out of the week. It's been a while. It's worn me out a little bit, but I feel the strong need to write. I've been a bit delinquent as of late when it comes to writing in the blog. I don't know what I have been doing in the evenings, but it hasn't been blogging.
We start our hero's story on Thursday night. I cooked for Sassy. We haven't hung out in a long while. I made chicken stuffed withe spinach and ricotta cheese. It was my first time making stuffed chicken breast, and it turned out really nicely. I also made roasted potatoes and grilled asparagus. It was a quality meal. I think the only downside of the meal was that I burned the roof of my mouth on a potato. Since I had a friend over, I had a perfect opportunity to drink some of the quality beer that I had in my fridge. I had a Hobgoblin and a Fiddler's Elbow. *sigh* I love those beers. There was siginificanly less talk about dragonboat than I thought there would be. It turns out that she too is quitting the club. Hmm... Funny how that club is driving people away.
After dinner, Sassy checked out my balcony. Out of pure chance, Clueless rode by on his bike, so we invited him up. He hadn't eaten, so I gave him some of the leftovers and then we broke out the dessert. By the time all was said and done, and everyone left, it was past ten o'clock or so. I was so sleepy by the time I cleaned everything up that I went straight to bed.
Friday was Covet's last day at the Corporation. I hadn't seen him in a while. Back in the day we used to have our training group get together for drinks once a month or so. Now, not so much. We've all broken off into our own lives. So, since he was quitting to become a teacher, we went out one last time. We all met at the Sidebar. It was a bunch of people from his group on the fifth floor, FOP, one of her friends and myself. Covet's new girlfriend was there too. We stayed there drinking for quite some time. FOP and her friend took off early because they had somewhere else to be. I have to say that FOP's friend was wikkid cute. She was young though. She was still in college at Johnson and Wales.
Actually a really funny thing happened at the Sidebar. I was just there drinkin' with my bud and this girl that I checked out a couple of times walks up to me and says, "Umm... Excuse me, but are you DJ ZEN!!!?" I was kind of shocked and amused that anyone would really recognize me as DJ ZEN!!!. So I said, "Why, yes. Yes I am." It turns out that I met her briefly at Digitaldewi and my Anti-Valentine's Day Party back... well, on Valentine's Day. We had a brief discussion about where we worked and how we were both out with co-workers for their last day. She works for the Corporation as well, but at the building two blocks away. It was cool. We really did have a nice conversation. I would really like to go and grab lunch with her. I told her to drop me a line so we could, but I really think the likelihood of it happening is close to nil. You never know though. I swear I'm not looking to get into anything with a girl right now, but the truth of the matter is that she was wikkid cute.
As the night pressed on, Covet's ex-coworkers got a little rowdy and somehow we ended up at Centerfolds. It was actually pretty damn amusing. We sat Covet's girl down with a stack of ones and let her go to town. It was great. We didn't stay long, meaning Covet, his girl and myself. We only stayed a half hour or so. By that time it was ten thirty or eleven o'clock. They needed to bounce back to the boonies and I needed to not spend more money. Before I hit Park Street, I gave Digitaldewi a call to see if she was in town yet and was walking to work, but she wasn't. She called me back right as I was coming out of Kendall Square home. It was timing that was just slightly off.
The next morning, I took it easy. I watched cheesy movies on TV, compiled some music for OMG's going away party and that's just about it. Fester came over because he thought he would be showing someone the decks. Unfortunately, no dice. At five, I met The Violent One and Her Majesty at the Out of the Blue gallery for a spoken word poetry fundraiser for the Team ASIA dragonboat team. I didn't know it was a dragonboat fundraiser until an hour before I went. The poetry was okay. As I was sitting there, I realized something. I identify as an Asian-American, but I don't identify with Asian-Americans. I don't buy into their cause. I don't believe in the political activism. I do believe that we as Asian-Americans are labeled and oppressed to an extent, but I don't think that standing up and shouting will make much of a difference. I believe that it makes people just say, "Oh, they're whiney bitches." I don't believe that fighting on the large scale does anything. What it does is allows Asian-Americans complain about the problems, while staying safe in their little Asian alcoves. I prefer fighting this fight on the small scale. I'll go out and be myself. I'll make friends and I'll talk to people. Maybe someday I'll meet someone who has a misconception or a stereotypical view of Asian-Americans. I'll talk to them and I'll prove the stereotype to be false. I don't believe that angry shouting at white people will do any good. You have to change people's minds individually so that maybe then they will change someone else's mind.
There was one crazy incident. After this one Philipino-American chick read a poem, this guy in the back of the room went off. He was all, "How dare you this," and "How dare you that." He had to be kicked out and he made a huge fuss. It was crazy. Her Majesty was scared that he was going to punch through the glass. I was conflicted over whether I should have gotten up and helped kick him out. I have a feeling that if I had, I would have thrown punches. He was really getting unruly when people tried to force him out.
During the intermission, The Violent One was feeling iffy because she thought she ate something funny. Not funny, haha. Funny, I'm itchy and hot. So, Her Majesty and I went and got her some Tylenol and some Claritin at Walgreens. While we walked there and back, we both decided that the poetry reading wasn't what we were in for. A lot of the subject matter was really heavy and neither of us identified with the sentiments neccesarily. So, we dropped off the meds and told The Violent One to meet us at a cafe later.
Her Majesty and I ended up at 1369 in Central. It was nice talking to her. I don't think we've ever really had a one on one opportunity to really get to know each other. I found out a lot about her. I think she found out a lot about me. It was really interesting, because I wasn't really directly connected to any of the other people that she hangs out with. I was just sort of a friend of a friend up until that point. I think that this round was a real friendship building thing.
After The Violent One caught up with us, we ended up going to Porter Exchange for dinner. I ran into some people from swing dancing there and also some people from dragon boat. See, these two dragon boaters also have left the club. Haha. I was amused. They don't think too highly of the administration either. I laughed. It was great.
At the Korean place in Porter Exchange, we had a hella gorgeous waitress. That's all I wanted to say about that.
By the time we finished, it was nine o'clock and we had to head over to OMG's place for her goodbye party. I brought the music on my computer and it was good to go. Since The Violent One wasn't feeling so hot, she went home early. I spent most of my night chatting with Her Majesty and one of Bombadier's coworkers and his wife. It was fun. Bombadier's coworker is a freakin' riot. At the end of the night, he was like, "Damn, boy, you've got to get with that (meaning her Majesty)." I was like, "Naw. It ain't gonna happen." Regardless, he and his wife want to get together with Her Majesty and I for drinks sometime this month. I'm sure we'll go out for drinks.
At the end of the night, I hurt my ass. I was sqatting to unplug my computer from the stereo when I fell backwards on my ass. I think I bruised my tailbone or something. It's hurt all day. Ouch.
Today, I also took it easy. I woke up late, made myself a killer omelette, tooled around the house, did some grocery shopping and that was it for the day. The Violent One and Her Majesty came over for dinner and to watch the Alias season ender. It was another tonkatsu night. Fun!
So that was the story of the past few days. Very eventful. Fun even. Now it's time to get back to my hermitizing and money saving.
I See Naked People.... Listening: We are the cartoon symphony. We do the things you wanna see, frame by frame, to the extreme.
The last two days have been rather uneventful. Most of it, while not at work, has consisted of me cleaning my apartment and watching season finales of shows. Over the last few months, my apartment has kind of fallen apart. By falling apart, I don't mean that its hinges are falling off or faucets are dripping. I mean that it has gotten cluttered. CDs here and there. Mail here and there. Books. You name it. I couldn't see any of my three tabletops. It was ridiculous. Now, my living area seems to be in pretty good shape. It's about time.
The reason that I have been cleaning my apartment is because I have a friend coming over for dinner tomorrow and she has never seen my apartment before. She's been invited to all of my parties, it's just that she's either been busy or sick. I figure I should make my apartment look nice for someone who has never seen it before. For people like The Violent One and Fester who are over often... bah.
I have moved my plants around a little bit. I moved the spider plant and the other plant that Paddleback gave to me up to the sill behind my kitchen faucet. I figure since those plants don't need a lot of direct sun, they would be fine there. My rosmary plant continues to reside on my coffee table. Grow, little one, grow!
Today at work, I accomplished a lot. I cleared up a bunch of exceptions that I was working on and just generally cleared about ninety percent of the work that has been on my desk for the past week. I was wikkid late to work today too. FOP called me on my cell and asked me if I was coming in. I hadn't heard my alarm, but I did hear her call the cell. Yeesh. I was really late. I guess the good thing was that my manager hadn't gotten in before I did. Saved me a lot of apologies. FOP and the other guy in my group got apologies though.
After work, I was surprisingly very active. I kicked it down to the grocery store and blew a little more than six Jacksons on food. I think I got a lot of food for my money though. A lot of the stuff I got was on sale or were going to save me money down the line (think: food to bring for lunch). I was back at my apartment at about half past six and I was eating my dinner of beef and asparagus over rice by seven thirty. I was amazingly clean as I cooked. I even froze the extra flank steak that I bought. I now have more meat in my freezer than veggies in my fridge. I need to find a place with better veggies.
After dinner, I watched the season finale of Smallville and the series finale of Angel. I have to say that the season finale of Smallville seriously made up for the huge mounds of shit that the writers put out for the majority of the season. I saw a few episodes this season and was wondering what the hell was up with the writers. I know that some of you all might have recorded or may not have seen it, but it looks like two characters walked, two characters seemingly have died and Clark may be coming back next season a changed man. *Whew* I thought it was some damn good plot twist up in there.
Angel was also a good finale. I think they gave each of the characters their due in the best way that they could given the time constraints imposed by the network. In this finale, one character dies and another walks. Oh, it was such a dark episode. Very nice. I was really happy that the ending wasn't "shiny happy" like the ending of Buffy. I find myself what happens after the end of the episode. Who lives and who dies? How do our fearless heroes dig themselves out of this one? I guess we'll never know. That's what happens when a series is cancelled.
After I watched the two shows, I went out to Harvard to meet up with Ye-ah. Apparently on the eve of every finals, the Harvard students have a little naked run around the Yard. Now, I had never seen a naked quad run or anything like that, so I figured, I guess I should see one at least once in my life. It turns out that Ye-ah had gotten a rather large group of people together to go see it. He had one friend that was running it and one of his students who decided to do it last minute. There was such fanfare. It was amazing. Techno music, horns, a band... Yeah, it was kind of crazy.
Now about the actual running.... Something I realized about mass nudity.... When it is in mass, it's no big deal. When it's one person, you can have an individual reaction like, "Oh, jeez. Put it away." Or "Daaaaaaaaaaang, she's hot." Or even a simple, "Meh." When it's in mass, nudity doesn't even seem like nudity. It was just a mass of people running around the Harvard Yard. So, I really wasn't all that affected by the nudity. I didn't find myself gawking at a hot chick or being disgusted by a guy. It was just there. I think I was more amused by some of the body painting that was running around. There wasn't really anyone who standout gorgeous, or thoroughly disgusting. It just was.
I think that it has made me think a little bit differently about doing some of these crazy college things. I mean, if there was a naked quad run at Colby, and I knew that it would be like the one at Harvard, I would probably do it. I would do it because it would probably be pretty damn big adrenaline rush, and I knew that I wouldn't be singled out in the crowd. Really, seeing this event has made me see these "crazy" things in a completely different light. Maybe I'm just more mature than I used to be. Maybe I'm less. Who knows?
Anyways, it's late now and I don't want to be late to work tomorrow. I'll need to be home right after work tomorrow to start cooking and stuff. *sigh* I dread going to work.
A New One To Care For Listening: With a little love and tenderness, we'll walk upon the water, rise above the mist.
Ahh, time for the weekend update. After work, I headed down to Haymarket to see if I could find any of the produce that I had read were in season. Actually, I was just looking for two different pieces of produce. First was asparagus and second was rhubarb. I wanted the asparagus because it is perhaps one my favorite vegetable. I was also interested in looking for white asparagus as well. I have never had it before and I wanted to try it. The rhubarb I wanted to try, because I have had it in pies, but I have never handled it myself. I wanted to. I wanted to try to make some pies. Alas, I was out of luck on both accounts. No asparagus. No rhubarb. No smiles.
I did, after trolling around for quite some time, walk away with some oranges, some peaches, some green peppers and some limes. I was happy with my bounty, but I didn't really come away with anything for dinner. I was a bit peeved about that. This peeved-ness was somewhat alleviated by my other purchase. I splurged. On my walk back through Quincy Market, I stopped at a plant shop where I saw a number of herb plants. For the grand total of three ninety five, I am now the proud new owner of a rosemary plant.
Ahh, the rosemary plant! It makes me so happy. I'm hoping that it grows big and strong so that I can devour it's little leaves. I'm gonna let it grow for a long while before I start hacking off it's limbs though. It is an evergreen plant, and I heard that it can grow to about six fee. I dunno if I really dig a six foot rosemary plant, but I think two feet might be proper. Oh, this little plant will make a yummy addition to my household.
Friday night, I took pretty easy. Earlier in the week, Fester and I made plans to fix the last turntable at my place so that we could sell it off. Upon taking it apart, Fester found that something was broken and he couldn't fix it with what we had so we put a hold on it. We both hadn't had dinner, so we decided to go grab some grub. On the way to get some grub, we went to grab some ingredients for the sangria recipie I got from Jaleo in DC. We had never had Cava (Spanish sparkling white wine) or brandy, so we got a small bottle of each in an attempt to figure out if those particular brands were good. After dinner at Punjabi Dhaba, we tested it out. The Cava wasn't bad. The brandy was ass. The Cava really grew on me. The brandy grew hair on my tongue. The Cava had a broad kind of bitter/sour taste. The brandy, I couldn't taste, because I swear I had just licked someone's ass... oh no, it was the brandy.
I took off from Fester's place at about a quarter to midnight or so and proceeded to call OC Girl on the left coast, because I said that I would. While I'm talking and walking, I run into Paddleback's girl. I stopped and said a quick hello, because I was on the phone. OC Girl proceeded to walk me home while on the phone. It was good to talk to her. It had been a long, long time since I had spoken with her. It was nice. I probably would have talked with her longer, but my battery beeped at me and so I had to hang up the phone.
Saturday, I woke up late. I think it was sometime around one o'clock. After a shower and a change of clothes, I made myself the most killer omelette. See, I have been watching a lot of Good Eats and other Food Network shows. It just so happened that I saw the Good Eats episode on omelettes, as well as the episode on omelettes for From Martha's Kitchen, so I took my newly learned techniques to the practical application kitchen. Let me just tell you that I had the most excellent Monterey Jack cheese omelette. It came out exactly as both shows had predicted. I think most of the improvement had to do with the movement of the pan and the butter applied to the pan prior to dropping the eggs in. Fantastic.
At around half past two, I headed over to OMG's place to check out her yard sale before heading off to the Beer Summit Volunteer Barbecue. The weather outside was fantastic. It was eighty something degrees out and I was wearing my UFO shorts and my Astronaut People Wear t-shirt. Yeah, I was feeling pretty electro. I had a good time hanging out with OMG and Bombadier until about four when I walked two blocks to the barbecue.
The barbecue was really cool. A lot of the hard core folk were there. You know, the marathon men who worked all five sessions spanning all three days. There was good food, good beer, and good conversation. I was psyched. I got to talk to a couple of girls that I rememberd thinking were hella cute from the Beer Summit. It was fun. I may go out karaokeing with them sometime soon. I guess it's a favorite past time for some of them. I think the annoything thing about the barbecue was that I kept getting calls. First it was Ye-ah, then The Violent One, then my parents then Ye-ah again and then The Violent One again... and again. Lotsa phone calls. I must have seemed really popular. I'm not though.
From the barbecue, I went directly to Club Passim to check out the Francis Kim Band and Kevin So. The Francis Kim Band had a decent performance. They all looked sharp after their joint haircuts earlier in the week. I think it was most noticiable in the lead guitarist. He had much sharper features due to his haircut. Anyways, they played a solid set, not a standout set, but a solid set. I realize that I haven't given them a really fantastic review. I think that this is beacause they haven't been nearly as good as the first time that I had seen them. Their energy hasn't been as high and Francis' voice hasn't been as on point. They have it in them to rock out and let loose a bit, but I just think they play it safe. To an extent, I understand them holding back for this show. I was told that Kevin asked them to strip it down a bit.
Kevin's set was jam packed full of emotion. It wasn't driving energy emotion. It was more of a dull ache in my heart emotion. It was clear that Kevin had a lot on his mind and that he had been going through a lot over the past six or eight months since he left Boston. When he sang "Leaving The Lights On," I thought that I was almost going to break down and cry. It was such an intense version of that song that it just hit me. It got me thinking a lot about the loss a lot of friends of mine have had in their lives over the past few months. Damn, it killed me. He also played "Five Days In Memphis," which happens to be in my top five of my favorite songs of his. He hasn't whipped out "Short End Of The Stick" or "New Day Begun" in the last few times that I have seen him perform, which is disappointing, but, hey, variety is good. "Hot Tub Lovin'" is an amusing song, but it just doesn't hit me like "Short End Of The Stick" or "New Day Begun" do.
In the show, I sat with The Violent One, OMG, Bombadier and the girlfriend of the lead guitarist for the Francis Kim Band. We both think we know each other from somewhere, but we can't figure out from where. It was very eerie.
After the show, a mess of us incluing all three acts performing that night went to the Border Cafe for margaritas. We got there at midnight and we left at two. It was a pretty chill time. The only problem was that I got stuck next to the strange guy who looked like a black Sideshow Bob with a mustache. He's just one of those socially awkward people who interjects random things into conversations that no one really cares about. It's like a non-nonsequitur that might as well have been one. It stops people in their conversation. It derails the conversation. It would be one thing if he was a constant participant in the conversation, but he wasn't. He was an interjector. Bothersome.
I got home at a little past two with a ride home from The Violent One, checked my e-mail and trailed off to sleep. I would have slept late, but I got a call from Ye-ah at ten something in the morning. Bastard. I took the call and went back to sleep until about one. When I got up, I was still tired. I don't even know why. I got dressed and went to Ye-ah's place for a little brunchy thing. I had a scone, came home, and went back to sleep until about eight something. I was still wrecked at that point that I had a salad for dinner, because I couldn't get off my fat ass to defrost something to eat. I've been like that a lot lately. Been eating a lot of greens because they're just easier to deal with. *shrug* I guess if that's how I feel, that's how I feel.
Work today was pretty chill. We had a meeting. It was lame. I came home. Fester came over and we finished fixing the turntable. I didn't feel like cooking, so I had a salad and a sandwich. And that's all she wrote about the past few days.
Before I finish this entry, I want to talk a little bit about Alanis Morissette. There's no doubt that her first album, Jagged Little Pill was a fantastic breakthrough album. It was her best selling album to date and from that album, her sales have gone downhill all of the way through the most recent album Under Rug Swept, which happened to be her lowest grossing album to date. Now, personally, I believe that Jagged Little Pill is a descent album, but I don't think it's a high rotation album. I just don't think that the listenability is there. The two albums following that album, I thought were trash. But Under Rug Swept I thought was her best album by far. It had a high listenability quality, fantastic lyrics, and a wide variety of styles. I just saw Alanis on David Letterman. If this new single is any indication of her new album, I think it's going to be just as good as Under Rug Swept. I'm hoping that it will gross more than Under Rug Swept though. I really dig the new single. I hope she keeps going in the direction she seems to be headed.
Anyways, that's all for now. Time to get my stuff ready for tomorrow. I have to sleep somewhat early today. Too bad it's already one.
A Frivolous Ending Listening: Tap on my window knock on my door. I want to make you feel beautiful. I know I tend to get so insecure. It doesn't matter anymore. It's not always rainbows and butterflies. It's compromise that moves us along.
Yesterday was an interesting day. I spent more of my day explaining procedure to a guy who writes procedure. Other than that, it was a humdrum day at work.
The weather outside was beautiful. I think it was ideal in temperature. Since it was so nice, I opted to be a bit frivolous and I went for a walk after work to get bubble tea at Cassava. I called up a few people to see if they wanted to meet me, but they were either busy or didn't call me back. It was okay though. I got to move at my mosey pace.
In the Common, I ran into Stringbean and Ye-ah's boy. It was completely random. It was actually really funny. I was coming over a hill in the Common, people watching when I saw a stringy Asian chick. I thought to myself, Hmm... a stringy Asian chick... hmm... she sure looks like Stringbean... Low and behold it was her. As we were talking, Ye-ah's boy walked by. He had been doing some reading on the other side of the Common. It was all pretty random.
From there, I walked down Newbury Street walking in and out of stores, buying nothing, but checking a lot out. I saw the BoDeans' Joe Dirt Car double live CD set for ten dollars at CD Spins, but I opted out of buying it. There was a sign up on the door saying that they were hiring part time workers. I'm thinking about applying. The thing about it is that I would be giving up both weekend days. I think that my CD collection would bulk up again like it did when I was in college. It's just something to think about though.
From there, I went to Cassava to get some bubble tea. Mmm... Bubble tea.... Oh yeah, I had a gotten enough bubble teas in the past to punch my card enough time to get a free one this time around. BONUS! I also found out that they now have a larger size for seventy cents more. I paid the extra pocket change and got myself a lychee green tea with lychee jelly.
The walk home was nice. The wind off the river was nice and cool and there were a number of people to watch. Actually, the walk home was nice until I was a block away from home. When I got to Binney Street, I saw a large backup of traffic. When I got to the island in the middle of the street, I saw why. There was a woman on the street . When I walked over I asked what was up. A MIT Saferide driver said that a girl got hit by a car and that they think her arm might be broken. When I looked over the first time, I saw some blood and a wound on her head. When I looked again, I saw that what I thought was her elbow was in fact her upper arm. I'm cringing just thinking about it. I'm so squeamish about those kinds of things. An ambulance had been called. I was wigging, so I left because I didn't think that there was anything that I could do. In retrospect, I probably could have gone to get a blanket to treat for shock, but honestly, I couldn't look at her. I could have asked someone to call from a landline, because an ambulance could get there faster, but I didn't think of it at the time. All I could think about was her upper arm. Yeesh. I need to stop thinking about this.
After I got home, I started on chores. Folding laundry and cleaning up the apartment a bit (though you wouldn't have guessed). As of late, I haven't been eating dinner until late. Yesterday was one of those cases. I don't think I started reheating my dinner and toasting my garlic bread until after nine thirty or so. At around ten or so, The Violent One came over to chill for a bit and to raid my chocolate stash (by that I mean all of the chocolate that I have that I don't eat because I don't dig chocolate that much). So, it ended up being a late night last night.
Today was pretty boring. Not too much to say. Well, actually, there was one thing. On a whim, I opted to go check out the clearance stuff at Macy's because I have four pairs of shorts that fit and only two pairs that are really hella comfortable. I figured that with the warm weather coming, I should be looking for some deals on shorts. Well, I didn't find shorts, I found something else. Today, I picked up a pullover ski shell made by Spyder. The original retail price was about two hundred and sixty dollars each and I picked up one for me and one for my brother for twenty five dollars each. I realized that I didn't need a winter shell RIGHT NOW, but I figured that I'll need it next winter. I mean, all I really have for winter jackets are my military long coat and a big ass down coat that I don't wear. I figure I can used the pullover in snowball fights or when the weather is especially wet. I thought they were good buys. Maybe I'll go snowboarding in Europe next year. Ha ha.
Anyways, it's late. I need to sleep. So happy it's Friday tomorrow.
Give That Boy A Deuce Listening: Ther's nothing I could say that could make you try to feel okay. And nothing you could do to keep me from feeling the way I do.
As I am trying to get through this transition period where I am teaching FOP how to do my job, I am finding that a lot of people in my group have no concept on what I do. I realize that some of this stems from making sure that I held some secrets so that I made myself a little less expendable during the layoffs. But a large part of it has to do with my longevity in the position and my willingness to ask the right questions to find the right answer.
Back when I was a kid, my parents used to tell me that I wanted everything given to me on a silver spoon. What is nine times nine? I don't know... Tell me. I even think I was that way up through college, or at least part of college. I think it was only until I decided that I wanted to work someone that I really got into asking the right questions. When I wanted to work the GM of the radio station before I beat him in an election, I started asking what needed to be done and what wasn't getting done. When I came to the Corporation, I hated Mumbles so much that I wanted to work him and run him out of my group. I wanted to make it impossible for him to look good at his job and make myself look like the man. I did that.
I think what has happened is that I have gotten too used to being the man who can get results that I naturally expect anyone who comes into my position to be able to get results. I naturally expect anyone who wants to step into my shoes to think, Pshaw, I already know all of this shit because I've studied what he's been doing for so long that he's fuckin' running a slow show. Kick the slow show and hit the showtime. But then again, I'm a dork.
Today, I spent my time explaining procedure to some of the trainers, because I'm the only one who has been exposed to some of this new stuff. That was amusing. At least this guy was asking the right questions. He left with a firm understanding of what happened on what timetable. I think FOP should be asking all of these questions, but as of late she seems a bit reluctant to spend any time learning the finer points of my job. I think that one of the more important points is that she hasn't really A) dealt with the client on a personal level figuring out what kind of service they ask for and how one can provide that service and B) she mostly deals with domestic matters, whereas, in my postion, you have to deal with elements that tie into both domestic and international matters. She's got a lot to learn in a pretty short amount of time. What will be good will be that I won't be too far in case people need to ask questions. Gonna guess that it's gonna get pretty messy when I make the transition to the other side though.
Anyways, enough about work. Today, was hella warm, for the first time this year. It was really nice. Since it was so nice, I decided to get some errands done after work. So, I threw in a load of laundry, changed into some shorts and headed out. Wait. Rewind to changing into some shorts. Okay, so today, I put on some shorts that I barely wore last summer. They're a pair of slim khaki cutoffs. I think my ass shrunk, because they actually fit pretty nicely. The interesting thig was that I heard a krinkle when I unfolded them. When I heard that I though, Aww, shit. I left something in them when I stuck them in the wash. But when I checked it out, what did I find? A nice twenty dollar bill. Rockin'!
Back to errands. Over the past week and a half or so, I had been feeling very koosh-like. My hair had gotten big and unmanagable. It's not unmanagable like a curly bird's nest of hair, but it was looking a lot like Wolverine looks like in comic books. Yeah. Since I hadn't had time to make an appointment with "my stylist," I decided to get my hair cut at Supercuts. Yeah, I know they would fuck it up to some extent, but I figure that I can alternate between "my stylist" and Supercuts to save money. Truth be told, they did cut the front a little short and they did do something weird with my sideburns, but whatever. It's fine for now. Now, I thought that I would have to pay for this haircut, but low and behold, I had this little 8=9 cards from back when I used to get my haircut at Supercuts all of the time (meaning my hair was fuct a lot more than it is these days). The card was filled, so I didn't have to pay a dime. Well, I tipped the girl who cut my hair, because I'm not a cheap bastard, but yeah. It was another pleasant surprise.
Tonite, I stayed in, did laundry, cooked, and watched TV. I made penne with pesto and vegetables. I practiced some of my pan tossing, meaning I tossed stuff in the pan with a flick of the wrist. I'm getting really good at it. I'm very happy about it. Perhaps one day I'll be as good as Silent Lush is. The again, he's at the Culinary Institute of America, so perhaps not.
I realize that I haven't talked much about TV lately. To be honest, it's not really important, but I seem to have been watching a lot of it lately. I have been getting caught up on 24 and Gilmore Girls, both of which look like they are going to be having kick arse season enders. I'm particularly interested in the season ender of Gilmore Girls.
Another bit of TV info... So, after seeing the season finale of Survivor: All-Stars, I checked out the website. It seems as if they will be casting the next season reasonably soon. I checked out the application and I am kind of entertaining the idea of throwing my name in the hat for a chance to be on that show. Fester thinks it would be interesting, but he doesn't think I could curb my personality or my annoyances with other people for a million dollars. I really don't know how I would play the game though. I don't know if I would have a strategy, or if I would just be me and let the chips fall where they may (though some alliances might help).
Anyways, that's it for now. I have my last load of laundry in the dryer and so I can now go to sleep. I'm sleepy anyways.
Back To Mine Listening: Solo flying mystery man, won't you take me on a ride, 'cause I've been waiting all my life to hear you say you want me and I said, I said I swear it's true.
This weekend was a pretty good time. Friday night, I stayed in and chilled around my house. Staurday was OMG's potluck and Paddleback's party. Sunday, I did dim sum and hanging out with friends. I guess I should expand a bit, no?
So, you've already heard the cornbread that I made. When I got it to the potluck, I found out that all three turned out reasonably well. The plain one was probably the driest of the three. The jalapeno one only had a subtle jalapeno flavour. I was really hoping for more heat, but alas, I'm going to have to try it again. It was, however, very moist and tasty. I think the winner of the three was the honey cornbread. It had a very nice brown on top and was very moist on the inside. God damn, I love cornbread. With the file powder that Booch brought back for me from New Orleans, I think I might have to have a night where I make some gumbo, some cornbread, and some collard greens. Oh, I can taste it now.
The potluck itself was pretty chill. We ate, watched Bend It Like Beckham and played Cranium. I kinda clowned myself at the beginning of the evening, though. Chocoholic brought a friend to the potluck. She was a light skinned Indian chick with light grey/green eyes. She introduced herself to me and I was so mesmerized by her eyes that I didn't think to introduce myseld back. I was pretty amused by it after I figured out what had just happened. Little showed up late. I don't think I said one thing to her all evening. I was one of the last to leave the potluck. I left around half past midnight.
After the potluck, I went to Paddleback's place for her birthday party. By the time I had gotten there, the party had died down and I knew a grand total of three people there. It was okay. I had a chill time anyways. Paddleback looked really good. It had been a long time since I had seen her. Paddleback's girlfriend and I had some fun. We have a kind of playful relationship, eventhough we don't even know each other all that well. It involved a lot of spanking and general crudeness. I caught a ride home from Mr. EBay.
Sunday morning, I woke up, showered, and waited for The Violent One to come over so we could head out to Chinatown. The Violent One got people together for dim sum to celebrate her birth into poverty, or rather into her new career. It was a good time. There was a good crowd of people there. For a change, I wasn't the table captain. There were two much more capable captains than myself there. There were like thirteen or so people there.
As we were waiting for our number to be called, I was hanging out with Booch in the stairwell of China Pearl as the rest of the crew was outside. One of The Violent One's new friends via the Francis Kim Band (I won't bother to draw out the web of degrees of separation) came to see what number we had. It seems as if she knew the guy who calls numbers and usually gets seated as fast as I get seated. Anyways, she's from the UK, so she has a nice British accent. When she grabbed my number and went upstairs to check on it, Booch turned to me and asked me, "Why aren't you getting on that?" Well, the truth of the matter is, that even if I could get with that, I don't really think it's the right time for me.
I don't know if you have really noticed over the last few weeks, but my focus and my priorities have really shifted. I'm thinking much more about going to Europe. I have my eyes on the prize and Europe is it. In addition to that I have been thinking a lot about my finances and the breakdown of it all. I have been budgeting and all of that kind of stuff. So, all in all, I don't think I'm really in any mental, financial or emotional position to be dating anyone at this point, so I'm just sort of going to put it on the backburner. I don't even know if it's on the stove. It could be in tupperware in my refridgerator. I mean, really... How can I honestly take care of someone else or worry about someone else if I can't even really take care of myself. I think it's better to just leave it alone, stay home more and just relax.
I also think that I'm going to start getting myself into a routine with the gym and working the turntables. I think that I'll alternate days in each. One day I'll work the body and the next day I'll work the ears. I was thinking about getting back into the gym tomorrow, but my back decided to still hurt today so I think I'm going to push it off a little longer. This is killing me not being in the gym though. It really is time for me to go back. I want to be all buff and stuff.
Anyways, that's all I have to say for now. Focus change is in effect. It's time to make it happen. Europe, here I come.
Back In The Hunt Listening: All seven and we'll watch them fall. They stand in the way of love and we will smoke them all. With an intellect and a savoir-faire, no one in the whole universe will ever compare.
So, I'm back in the game again. Yesterday, our team had a meeting, myself, my manager and my two workers. My manager wanted to know how things were going with one man down and if things needed to be adjusted to make things more managable. We all told him that everything was managable and he was pleased. After the meeting, he pulled me aside. He told me that the loss of our other worker would not affect my moving over to the other side of the business. He said that he noticed the concern on my face when they told us that the worker was let go and he wanted to assure me that I was still moving over. In fact, they're just waiting for a manager on the other side's approval. I guess he's been busy as hell over there with a new officer on the floor and so on and so forth. I still expect to be over there in a month. So, by June, I expect to be over there. Six months from then, which would be in December, I should be able to start posting out. Which makes me hopeful that I'll have a job in Europe by the time my birthday comes along. That is my goal. I have my eyes on the prize, and I fully expect to be having my birthday dinner at a French bistro in Paris.
After work, I met up with Glare. She was in town for a conference at the Federal Reserve building. I was so nice outside that we walked to Newbury Street for some ice cream before meeting up with Booch at Bartley's for dinner. It was a nice dinner. All of us were famished and the burger really hit the spot. Also, there's nothing like a Lime Rickey on a warm summer's day. I know it's not summer yet, but it felt like a perfect summer's day to me.
Following dinner, we went to Booch and Ye-ah's place so that we could meet Booch's new pup. A greyhound. Man, she was perhaps the most docile dog that I have ever met. Very calm and lethargic even. Very cool. Makes me want a dog. Actually, I do want a dog, but I don't think I'm responsible enough for it yet. Booch seems to think that I would only get a small dog. I dunno. I don't dig small dogs. I think the only small dogs that I would get would be a pug or a bulldog. I dig bulldogs. She also thinks I should get one when I go to Europe. I don't think that would be a good idea, because I would want to be traveling all of the time, so I wouldn't have time to care for it. *shrug* I guess I would have to think hard about it.
Today, I woke up, went to the grocery store and then baked all day. I made three different types of cornbread for a potluck that I have tonite. Actually, I really did make too much. It's gonna be a pretty small potluck. It's only gonna be the Colby crew. Since OMG is leaving for the left coast permanently at the end of the month, she just wanted to get the band back together. I couldn't blame her. So I made a plain cornbread, a honey cornbread, and a spicy cornbread. It's schweet. I also whipped up some butter with some sugar and some honey, so I now have sweet butter as well to go with it. I can't wait to see how it all came out. I haven't tasted it, because I didn't want to cut it up before I went over there. I'm hoping at least two of the three are good.
After the potluck, I'm planning on going over to Paddleback's place for a party I'm bringing two sixes of beer from the summit to the party. Don't worry. It's not the quality beer that I'm bringing. It's the okay beer that I'll be giving up.
Anyways, I have to go. I'm gonna spin some rekkids before I leave the house to get to OMG's place. Tschuss.
One Month.... Listening: With a long range weapon or suicide bomber, wicked mind is a weapon of mass destruction.
Good and bad stuff happening today. Work was pretty status quo. It felt like a Friday though. I had a hard time believing that it was only Thursday. I found out that today was the last day for someone in an adjacent group as mine, and one of their other workers is going on vacation for the next week. I'm gonna bet I'll be doing something to help.
Today while I was washing dishes, I did something that I have never done before. I broke a glass. I know, I know.... Everyone breaks something sometime. I just have never broken a glass before. Unfortunately, it happened to be my half pint from the Heineken Brewery in Amsterdam. I have to say that I'm a little bit disappointed. I guess that just means that I'll have to go back and get another one.
On the plus side of things, I found out some new information about the new Faithless album. It's called No Roots and it drops on June seventh. You had better believe that I'll have one of the first copies in Boston. The theme of this album is love in the macro and the micro scale of things. The first single from No Roots, "Mass Destruction," drops on May thirty first. It's kind of an interesting song. I found some mixes of it on Limewire. The single mix seems to have a very surfer feel to it. The lyrics really attack the evils going on in the world today. It's very different. I can't wait to hear the rest of the album. Dido makes another appearance as a guest vocalist and I think that they brought in another vocalist as well. So psyched.
Anyways, that's it for now. Time for sleep. Tomorrow is Friday, and as everyone knows, everybody's working for the weekend.
Kickin' Dinner Old School Style Listening: You see the difference and it's getting better all the time.
I continue to get run every day at work since my bosses have started puffing their chests. Anyways, this is how I see it. They're both new in their positions. They both have to assert their authority and they're looking for people to make examples of. The kid in my group got fired because of it. I would be lying if I said that I didn't see it coming. The kid, for sure, was cruising on minimal work. He made mistakes that needed cleaning up (most of the time by me). But I, personally, feel that it was better having him there doing the daily stuff aiight and messing up here and there, as opposed to not having him there to do anything and everyone having to pick up the slack. I think I was targeted last week because they were going to try to make an example of me. Luckily, my track record is too good and the mistake was too small. I just hope that this bullshit posturing ends soon so that we can forget about what's going on in the office and focus more on serving our clients.
Today's work load consisted of my daily stuff which takes next to nothing on a good day, and one other task. I had to change something that had been entered on Monday. This meant that I had to reverse forty events that automatically happen in the reverse order in which they happened, change the thing that was entered, and then manually re-do the events that were reversed in the right order. Yeah, that took me a good two hours alone. Actually it took me more time than that. It took me an hour to figure out how to fix what I was fixing, an hour to determine the proper order of things, and another hour to actually execute what needed to be done. The great thing about it is that I'm the only one in my group who has bothered to think critically about these kinds of events. I have done things like this before, but a lot of it was trial and error and took much longer than this did. This time, I decided to ask some experts and find out the best way to approach the problem. They gave me some pointers on how to actually do it cleaner and easier. It was great. Now if only the other people in my team knew how to do this too. It took sooooo long though. It was a good thing that I brought lunch. Otherwise I would have starved.
So, after work, I went to the doctor. For the past two and a half weeks, I have been sick and my back has been killing me. This morning, I actually woke up with significantly less back pain. Just because I started with less back pain, didn't mean that I had no back pain. As the workday wore on and I was stressed out, the back pain got worse. So I saw the doctor, and the consensus was that I strained my back from all of the coughing. She suggested ibuprofen and prescribed some stuff to help me stop coughing so I would sleep through the night.
The reason that I hadn't taken ibuprofen earlier is because I thought Well, if I'm covering up the pain, how am I supposed to know if it's getting better or not? However, the doctor said that the ibuprofen is an anti-inflamitory and would give my back a chance to heal itself quicker. So, I gave in. I got the ibuprofen.
Since I did go to the doctor, I decided that I deserved a treat. I decided I wanted something especially yummy for dinner. I thought about what I wanted, and the answer was fish. So, I went to my friendly neighborhood fishmonger and I took a look at what he had. By the time I walked out of the store, I had a half a pound of haddock in my backpack. From there, I went to the drug store to pick up drugs, and the grocery store to pick up groceries. There was a killer sale on my favorite brand of pasta and a decent sale on sauce. Actually, when I looked at my grocery bill, it came to thirty dollars, but I had saved ten on different sales. I was proud of myself. Yeah, I'm a dork.
So for dinner, I had rice and fish steamed with scallions and ginger and a little bit of soy sauce. It's a dish that my mother used to make when I was a kid. I never really eat fish unless I'm at a restaurant or unless I make it myself. It's a weird thing that I have. Anyways, it came out so well. I was impressed. The greatest thing about it was that I got to work on my julienning skills with the ginger again. I am getting really good at it. I didn't over steam the fish either. The colors were bright and vibrant. Yeah, it was good. I was very proud of myself.
Anyways.... That's all I really have to say for the evening. Not too much is new. I have new neighbors on the other side of me now. I heard them talking while I walked by their door. Damn there needs to be some better sound insulation in this building. I'm looking forward to a night of cough-free slumber....
Nuts 'n' Bolts! Nuts 'n' Bolts! Listening: Self protection was in times of true danger your best defense to mistrust and be wary surrendering a feat of unequalled measure.
I GOT SCREWED! Today, I got screwed. One of my workers got himself fired. Mutha fucker! Now, back in the day, I wouldn't have cared, but this is kind of a critical time for me. I'm training FOP on my job, fitting her to take over doing what I'm doing when I go over to the other side of the business. But now that this kid got himself fired, this puts me in a holding pattern. Now, FOP will still move up into my position, most likely, and I will end up having to cover until we get a new person to replace the fired kid and then I'll have to train them. ARGGGGG! I am so frustrated! Things are gonna get ugly in a hurry.
To be honest, I don't know what to do about this. Do I just have to roll with the punches? Do I have to suck it up? I am just so angry about this. I am fuming. I'm so fuming that I can't even talk about this anymore. Fuckin' a.
In other news, I am going to see a doctor tomorrow about my back pain. My mother thinks that it may be due to my posture when I'm typing at my computer and the quality of my mattress. Though it may be true that my couch and computer placement don't contribute to my posture and my mattress does suck, I think I would have had more backpain before I got sick. It's true that I had aches and pains before i got sick, but the consistent pain that I have now has just stepped it up. I've tried cracking my back and stretching, but nothing seems to help. I realize that I haven't taken any ibuprofen, but I figure if I take something to kill the pain, how am I supposed to know when it really goes away? I hope this doctor has something to tell me though.
Anyways, that's my story for the day. I'm gonna try to get to work early tomorrow to assess damage with this guy out on a permanent basis. Grrr... I need to get out of there.
The Air Is Thick Listening: Please, don't leave me wanting more. I hope you never die. There's no need to say why. Just promise that you'll try.
Death runs thick this spring. I have had two friends lose family members and I, well, I am on the verge of losing one of my plants. I guess what's happening to me isn't nearly as painful as what's happened to them. Some live long lives, and some live short. I wonder which one I'll be. I wonder how I feel when I draw my last breath and if I'll realize that it'll be my last breath. I wonder if I'll draw my last one and then draw a half of one only to not be able to complete it. Damn, I sound morbid. I think that when I am reminded of death like I have been lately, I think of my grandfather.
Man, I still don't understand the effect that he had on my and why he had as big of an effect on me as he did/does. I wish there was an explanation. I wish I could get to the root of my connection to him. It's something that I think about. I think that I think about him more than my older brother does. I don't know how often my dad thinks about him. I wonder what he thinks about and what he remembers of my grandfather's life. I wonder what his favorite memories are and how exactly that shaped him to be who he is.
All of this makes me think about connections to people and friends. While I was sick last week, Japanaphile asked me why I didn't ask The Violent One to go out and get me some food. I told him that she does enough for me already and that I just didn't want to ask her to do anything else. His response was, "And it's all about keeping track of points isn't it." That was a jab at me. He thinks that I keep track of friends like this. This is only a half truth. There are tried and true friends who don't need to make an effort with me and who I will always be there for. But when you just meet someone or have just started a friendship, to some extent, it is about reciprocity. I call you, you call me. I hear about something cool, you hear about something cool. I share, you share. That's how friendships get started. I don't think that everyone understands it. I think that people count acquaintances as friends. I don't so much. Either you're my friend or your not. Some people fall from grace. Sometimes I fall from people's grace. Sometimes there's just no effort.
Personally, I put a lot of effort into my friendships and relationships. A couple of my friends lately expressed the idea that they think I put too much into my friendships and relationships. That if I weren't to call or to e-mail they wouldn't notice, because they already have their busy lives on a track, whereas I do not. Sometimes I think about these things.
Life as of late has been a little rough on the body and on the spirit. I've been thinking about my future and thinking about what I want to do. I have decided a couple of things. First of all, I need a time out. I have all of these friends who are on track to something, who have significant others, who are setting up pins and knocking them down. Watching them do so, just makes me think that I should be doing the same thing. The difference is that I don't know what I want to do or how I can achieve goals. I think that going to Europe will be a good time out for me. I will be away from all of my friends, who I love dearly, but make me think too much about my future. I think I will be able to relax a bit in Europe. I'll be able to just stop spinning my wheels and just park for a second and enjoy the scenery. That's something I haven't been able to do in a long time.
Second, when I hit that next stage of life, I want to be debt free. What is this fear of debt and poverty that my parents have drilled into my head? I feel like it chokes my dreams sometimes. I feel like this fear paralyzes me at times. But back to debt free. I want a clean slate. I want to start new when I start the next stage in my life, clean and fresh like the morning. I hate the debt that I have. Thousands and thousands of dollars to the government. All for an education that's getting me nowhere. I hate it. I want to erase it. Clean.
To achieve goal two, I think I'm going to try to get a second job and double the payments on my college loan. I've started getting connections into the world of liquor sales, so I might try to parlay that into a job doing promotions or even just working at a liquor store for a second job. With the expenses that I have no, I'll only be making the regular payment. If I get a second job, I can pay more. I think it would be good. And just like this winter, the more I work, the less time I'll be out spending money.
Anyways... I think it all needs to fall together soon. I don't think I can continue the way I am right now for much longer. I think it's just an immense emotional strain on me. I guess TMI is right. I have this severe emotional attachment to money. I don't like it. I need to find a way to break it. I know that there are more important things in life. I don't know how to find it yet, because my blinders are on. Once the debt is gone, I think the blinders may be off. We'll see.
