Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Blog etiquette?

I just read Rich's justifiably outraged post about people using cell phones while they make brown, and now I'm wondering if it's in bad taste to blog while on the can. If so, I present to you my sincerest apologies. Pretend I'm sitting at a charmingly cluttered rolltop desk, smoking a pipe as I write this...

It's windy outside. Whoa, is it windy outside.

Busy, boring day at work. One more day of work and then two days off. Looking forward to it.

I pick up my ladyfriend from the airport tonight! Yea!

Hung out with Pat Kilpatrick last night, went to the Rec Room for 1/2 price burgers and I had a couple of beers, and we just chatted about stuff. He seemed very happy to be getting out and having some company.

Some things on my Christmas list, for any of my wives that might be interested:

1. New goddam pajama pants. Not too heavy, not too light. Just damned right.
2. I guess some new black socks.
3. Maybe A MIGHTY WIND, able to be purchased during B&N Employee Appreciation Days (Dec. 9-18th) for a tidy $6.66.

That's about it.

Monday, November 28, 2005

Feel like I've been at work non-stop since I've been back in town. Not really, though, although I have been working a lot. Looking forward to my days off on Thursday and Friday. Miss Jeannie a lot, but I got to talk to her on the phone yesterday which was great.

Ways in which my life would be different if Jeannie and I weren't together:

1. I would drink a lot more beer.
2. I would be a lot fatter.
3. I would reuse dishes with a minimal amount of cleaning them.
4. I would feel that my life is pretty much pointless.
5. Life would be much quieter, and not in a good way. In an empty way. I would have to find some outlet at home for just talking. I guess it's been awhile since I've lived by myself and I'm not used to it anymore. I remember that when I moved to Baltimore I was unsure if I could handle going back to living with roommates after having lived by myself for a few years.

Strange dreams last night. I remember part of one very vividly, my tooth fell out, which is a recurring dream I have, and one that I hate. Donald Trump showed up in one of my dreams, too, and I feel like he's shown up before. That can't signify any sort of mental health, I'm sure.

Saturday, November 26, 2005

A Plea.

Jeannie, for the love of Jebus, come home.

Friday, November 25, 2005

A Couple of Firsts

Some new things happened today:

1. I worked my first "Black Friday," i.e. the day after Thanksgiving. It wasn't busy at all. Probably because B&N doesn't have any special sales.

2. I was helping a customer find a SCISSOR SISTERS cd. A little while later, he called back to ask if I was gay. I told him no, and he seemed surprised. He said I should be flattered, but now I'm just wondering what kind of vibe I'm giving off. I'm attributing it to the fact that I trimmed my beard this morning, so I'm looking a little bit more anal than I was 24 hours ago. Also, I knew right where the SCISSOR SISTERS cd was.

Wish I was in Ohio with my wife and friends, listening to strange records.

Thursday, November 24, 2005

Acting Suck It Champion (or, There and Back Again)

Well, I am back in Baltimore as of a few minutes ago. I am very tired, but made it here in one piece. I got a damned speeding ticket on the way home, because I was blasting my music at an extremely loud volume and not paying attention to how fast I was driving. I have gotten several tickets in this manner...

So many things to write about, but so tired....

First, a short recap of the holiday, for posterity:

Monday night arrived and sat around talking. Went to bed, cold, but slept well and Jeannie slept the whole night through, which hasn't happened in awhile.

Tuesday Brad and Henry to work/school, Jeannie worked on putting some canvases together; Jen, Rich, and myself have a SORRY! (aka SUCK IT!) tournament. Schlueter is the winner. While all this is happening, the bird is cooking, boob side down as an experiment. Brad and Henry get home, we eat a huge Thanksgiving feast, I immediately fall asleep afterwards. At night, Scattergories.

Wednesday everyone stays home from work/school. Playing with Henry, eating leftovers. Schlueter and Henry take long nap while Jeannie, Rich, Brad and I have another SORRY! (aka SUCK IT!) tournament. I win after a few very close, intense games. My 2 day total victories are more than Schlueters, so I name myself acting SUCK IT! Champion until Schlueter and I can face off head-to-head. At night, Brad tells us his jury duty experiences (very interesting), and then Rich and Brad confess all of their childhood sins. All is forgiven. Schlueter gets tipsy in a laughy, slurry, stumbly way (very amusing).

Thursday big Down Home Country Breakfast. Then Jeannie and I pack up and leave. I drop her off at the Columbus airport (she's flying to St. Louis for her high school reunion) and then continue on to Baltimore. Work on lyrics for new song, also listened to latest Sufjan Stevens album (enjoyed it) and a Sun Kil Moon mix (liked their earlier stuff better than the new album). Listened to BJ's mix again. Got a damned ticket. And here I am.

What a great trip. No puking, great conversation, wonderful people.

Tonight I have to sleep in bed alone, which means I'll sleep great but wake up lonely. Miss you, Jeanners.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Tuesday

Well, we are here in Ohio, and in the few hours that we've been here and awake, it has proven itself once again to be the best time of year. Rich R. is here, Jen Schlueter-Steinmetz is here, and Brad and Henry Steinmetz are here but are currently at work/school. Initial preparations for our Thanksgiving feast have begun and there's a trip to the art store in the works.

On the drive here, I finally got a chance to listen to a mix CD that BJ Gailey had given to me when he was in town. I am always entertained and surprised by his mixes. He manages to put together songs that I would either never listen to or never put on the same mix, and somehow the mix works, and they always broaden my musical tastes. His mixes tend to swing wildly between different styles, whereas mine tend to be more linear and there's less differences between consecutive songs. So thanks to the BJ.

Also listened to a mix that Jeannie's friend Kris had made for her, and enjoyed that as well.

Lots of laughs and conversation after we arrived last night a little after midnight, and then to bed around 2am.

Started recieving some preliminary e-mails for the next show, THE IMAGINARY INVALID. It's in February. I have a hard time getting motivated for something that far in advance, especially since the majority of my work won't be done until the week before the show. Oh well.

More later.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Sunday Night



This is Samuel. He lives upstairs, and on Saturday and Sunday nights we babysit him overnight while his mom works at a hospital. He's cute and nice, but tonight he was kinda sick and in a bad mood so he didn't like me very much. He still liked Jeannie, though.

Hopefully within the next 26 or 27 hours I will be hanging with my friends in Bellefountaine, OH.

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Hamburglar

Went in to CSC this morning to work on cleaning the storage areas. About halfway there I realized that when I lost my keys earlier this week, I lost my key to get into the offices. Didn't feel like going home so I decided to just figure out a way to break in when I got there.

Well, when i got there, I tried my usual break-in techniques, but they didn't really work. Then I noticed an exhaust fan above the set of double-doors, and I climbed up on a trash can and gave the fan a good yank and it came right out of the wall, leaving a nice 2' by 2' hole for me to lean through and undo the lock. Then I put the fan back in the wall (it wasn't hooked up to anything. Most things in the building aren't).

Then I started cleaning and tidying, which was fun because I brought along my copy of the new Wilco live double CD (burned for me by Patrick at work), and cranked it up while I was working. All-in-all it's a good album, with high points and low points. But Gawd, if there was one person whose voice I could have it would be Jeff Tweedy. His voice is able to sound strong and ragged at the same time. It's also right in between a speaking voice and a singing voice. So he's able to get away with very conversational lyrics and have them turn out to be poetry. He's got the skillz to pay them bills.

Babysitting tonight, then strike, then work early tomorrow. The Jeanners has been driving down to Annapolis the last few days to help MAW's parents paint the inside of their house. Aimee over last night for low-key evening of chatting, popcorn eating, and a Guinness for me. Wore my PJ pants and didn't feel embarassed.

Friday, November 18, 2005

Lu Lu

Last night Jeannie and I went out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary, and I can't help but be amazed that, despite the fact that we had a $100 gift certificate, we still ended up spending more on dinner than we normally do when we go out. How do people afford dinners like this? Yes, the food was good, and we had wine and dessert and a "microsalad" (which means very very tiny salad for $11.00), but I still can't believe that there are people who regularly spend that much on a dinner. Well, it was fun, and I'm glad we did it. I'm also glad we had the gift certificate.

Yesterday was a pretty damned good day. Worked on music all morning, and ended up with a rough draft of a song that now just needs lyrics. It's got a melody line and chorus already, so I really just need to come up with verses. What's this song about? I like the music, it's very U2-ish, with some good rough guitar sounds.

Also did laundry, ate a big bowl of pea soup (which I got a lot of in my beard), and took a very relaxing bath with incense, tea, bubble bath stuff, and Brian Eno book.

Work tonight. Not looking forward to it, but not dreading it, either.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Shout Out.

Big hellos to Johnnycakes Hubert, aka K-Torr. The man with the heart as big as his....

feet. Which are large.

Still in Colorado, K-Torr? With the Unitarians? How's the sitar playing coming?

K-torr was last seen over Christmas last year, briefly in a smoky bar where I couldn't really hear properly, but we last really got to talk when he was in DC last year. Jeannie took this picture then. I think it's a great one of him, so great that I cropped myself out of it, and that don't happen too often...

Beeah in my Besh.

It's been one of those weeks where the days all seem to be wiping into each other and there's not much intersting to say. It's all due to work, pretty much, which has been boring and a pain in the ass and not much fun at all, aside from moments that I get to stop and watch "Fame" for a few minutes.

Aside from work, the week has been about getting to hang with MAW and Aimee last night, which was fun chatting and watching some TV over beers and pizza and Youknow Todd. Youknow Todd, by the way, is known to the rest of the world as the card game Uno. It's an obscure ZOOLANDER reference that I doubt anyone will get. I'm also pretty sure that nobody will get "beeah in my besh," for a few reasons. A) it's a sentence that I've only ever said to Jeannie. 2) It's a sentence that doesn't mean anything in the first place. Basically, in my head, it's someone saying "Beer in my bush," with a thick Boston accent. I don't know why I ever said it to begin with, or why I decided that saying it in a thick Boston accent would be amusing, or why I continue to say it, but every couple of days I just say it to Jeannie for no apparent reason other than I enjoy it.

So yeah, the week has also just been about enjoying any free time that I've had with Jeannie, which hasn't been a lot, but it's been fun anyway. Tonight I made a big spaghetti dinner before she got home, and then we've just been lounging about after a nice, hot shower.

Been thinking a lot about working on new music, but haven't done anything. This is due mostly to the fact that I have no ideas about the type of song I want to do next. I guess that I am in what Ron Rybkowski would call an "incubation period," which I guess is where you sit on your ass and wait for inspiration to strike. I love incubation periods.

Jeannie is falling asleep on the couch. She's supposed to be working on painting homework. She's my favorite person.

Sorry that this one's all over the place. No focus equals Art.

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Corn Gratis

Must make this quick. The Jeanners is upstairs babysitting (not exactly cause the kid is actually asleep) and I want to go see her. Today is our 1 year anniversary! Woo-Hoo! We celebrated by spending about 15 minutes of it together and conscious. I had a long day at work so we didn't really get to see each other. We plan on celebrating on Thursday.

Some interesting things of the past couple of days:

1. I lost all of my keys today somewhere at work. They just disappeared into thin air. The only explanation that I can think of is that I put them in a customer's bag by mistake and they walked off with them. Damn Damn.

2. We've had the first season of "Fame" on the TV's at work. My GAWD that show was awesome. Awesome Awesome AWESOME.

3. Went and saw Coriolanus again last night. The show looked much better. Some of the projections actually looked pretty cool, if nothing else as an interesting backdrop. Actually, I only saw the first act and part of the second act because my bowels exploded during intermission and I couldn't quite finish all of my business during the 10 minute break. Perhaps more information than anyone needed to know.

4. Saw the BJ Gailey last night; had dinner with Pat, Aimee, BJ, Pat's brother Jake and his wife Carol at La Palapa. La Palapa is a Mexican restaurant in Elicott City (see second half of #3). Hope I get to see the Beej sooner than springtime, because his visit was far too short.

Happy Anniversary, my sweet.

Friday, November 11, 2005

Follow-Ups

Regarding the e-mail that I got from Sean: I am passing along a picture of Seanyboy, in a bar somewhere in San Francisco, I believe. He is wearing what is perhaps the ugliest hat in existence, and it is nowhere near as fine as the hat he acquired in a trade with me years ago...



Regarding the sad news I got from a friend: not to worry, nobody is sick or dying or anything, just some sad relationship news. Still very sad, nonetheless, and I can't quite believe it.

Regarding how I have spent my time off: Well, yesterday Jeannie and I spent pretty much all day running errands, and then last night Aimee came over and we made a big dinner of chicken, mashers, green beans, salad, homemade bread, and some homemade apple pie with vanilla ice cream. Yummy in mine tummy. Today we don't have any plans yet. Jeannie's at work and when she gets home I'm gonna see if she wants to go to Robert E. Lee Park and do some walking through what remains of the fall color. I think she also wants to work on some painting homework today.

Tomorrow: work, then BJ arrives! Seeing Coriolanus again, hopefully all the kinks have been ironed out...

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Big Fish

Tonight we finished watching 'Big Fish." It was a decent movie and we enjoyed it.

I remember when E. Elz first saw the movie in the theatre and we were hanging out with him afterwards and he was telling us that he liked it and he was telling us about it. It's a movie that makes me think almost entirely of E. Elz.

Tonight I recieved a piece of sad news from a friend that seemed to change the way the air felt around me.

Seanyboyspiff

I just read a big, long, roaring e-mail from my good buddy Seanyboy up in AK. He and his ladyfriend just got back from tromping around on the west coast, where they had numerous adventures and have lived to tell the tale.

I have also just finished a 9 day work stretch and am staring down the barrel of 2 full days off. I plan on having some adventures with my ladyfriend, probably less exciting than Seanyboy's but nonetheless they will be adventurous.

By the way, last night I ended up wasting, but at least I didn't watch TV all night. I listened to music and made a CD of my stuff to give to Flora at work. Which reminds me, everybody who's in Chicago, Flora's band THE METAL HEARTS will be playing in Chicago on Monday, November the 14th. I can't vouch for how good the show will be, but if you've got the night open and are looking for something different to do, it's free. It's at a place called the EMPTY BOTTLE. Here's an ad for the show:




I just bought an 8 pack of Guinness! Woo-Hoo! Here's to Seanyboy!

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Looking for the dookie.

Tonight I have a night entirely free and to myself, something that hasn't happened in a little while. How shall I spend it? Waste it in front of the tube? Possible but not probable. Record the song that is destined to become the "Greatest American Pop Song of the 21st Century"? Perhaps. Perhaps also I will call my brother and my sister and my parents, who are all owed phone calls from me.

I know this, I'm gonna start off by eating a doggy or two (of the hot variety) and by sending off some mad props:

Mad props to:

1. Rich R., owner and operator of the Shoppe. You have a lifetime customer in me, my friend.

2. Flora Wolpert-Checknoff, a co-worker of mine at the B&N who's band was recently signed to an indie lable in Seattle. She is quitting the B&N to devote more time to the band. I checked out a couple of their songs online and I liked them. If you have a minute, check them out at:
http://www.myspace.com/themetalhearts

3. Mad props to this kid at the B&N who said my favorite quote of the week. He's about 11 and came in looking for Green Day cd's. When I asked him which one, he said, "I'm looking for the Dookie."

Sunday, November 06, 2005

Autumnal Observations

Tonight as I was driving home from work, I drove under a big tree and as it's little bit rainy and windy outside, a ton of leaves started falling and swirling around my car. Awesome. Kind of like being in a blizzard.

Also, while Jeannie and I were house-sitting, there were lots of geese flying overhead, honking and being very goose-like. I think that birds flying south for the winter is my favorite natural phenomenon to watch. It's a very musical thing. Whenever I watch a big flock of birds swooping around in formation it always puts melodies in my head. Yes, definitely. Watching birds fly south for the winter is on my list of Top 20 favorite things. Probably around number 13 or 14.

That's about it, really. A not-very-exciting day of babysitting, napping, then work. Now I'm going to have a snack and then go upstairs to babysit again with Jeannie.

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Last Day at the Ranch

Well, I went and saw Coriolanus last night, and I think the best way to describe it would be "relatively disastrous." There were parts of it that were absolutely a train wreck, due in large part to technical problems and the show being poorly run. Which is fine and all, but I'm sad because Jen Schlueter was in town for a conference and was able to come see the show, and I was a little embarassed that it was a show that was pretty bad.

But, we had a good dinner before the show, with beers, and then went out afterwards and had some drinks and chatted it up with Pat Kilpatrick. We picked apart the show, talking about what didn't work and what worked and who we absolutely hated when they came onstage and things like that.

Jeannie and I are leaving the cabin today and go back to our normal life, which I think we're both looking forward to. I'm ready for a nice 10-12 hour night's sleep. And to not be writing this on a damned dial-up connection. We will miss the dogs, and the fireplace, and the tub, though.

Seeing Schlueter made me very ready for Turkey Day, my favorite day of all.