Saturday, December 31, 2005

New Year's Eve

How shall I spend this last day of 2005? Here's how it's gone so far: worked today, home around 6pm. Put in a call to Rich R. but the boy weren't at home. Sat on the can for awhile playing my new handheld Sudoku game. It's pretty great, perhaps even better than handheld Yahtzee for playing in the bath-room.

Right now the song "Darkness on the Edge of Town" is playing on the Ipod. There's 3 hot dogs starting to boil for me, Jeannie is at a dinner with some folks from her old job, and I've got some Guinness getting cold in the fridge.

How has the year been? Well, if you leave out Jeannie's throat problems, it's pretty much been the best year ever. But unfortunately, I can't leave out Jeannie's throat problems, so as it was it was a pretty damned fine year. Being married is great, better than I thought it would be, somehow. The job is fine, I got a lot of work done on music, and got to see a lot of friends and family.

Things to do for 2006: Jeannie and I should move to Charles Village, I should get a job managing the music department of the new B&N in Charles Village. Be better at retunring people's e-mails. Finish up the CD and send it out. Visit home more often than this year. Visit Ohio more often. Try and make a little bit more money, save up for a howse. Reach a point of total Zen where I don't care about anything.

That's about it for now. Happy New Year!

Friday, December 30, 2005

We're Back.

Well, we're back from what could be "The Best Christmas Ever." We really had a good time and got to see a lot of people and eat a lot of food that tasted really good and gave us bad poops and gas.

Some highlights:

1. Ice skating at Steinberg Rink on the day after Christmas. My family goes every year, this year Jeannie's mom and dad came, and her brother Seth.

2. Hanging out with Eric, Drew, Karista, J. Knese, and Colette at O'Connell's. Eric's tales of falling asleep with food in his mouth and pouring barbecue sauce all over himself inhis sleep, Drew's tales of sucky oral surgeons and sucky economics classes.

I was saddened to read that Stevie Earl Jacobs has been killed. I was sad to hear that part of the reason is because of the book we sent to Rich for Christmas. Part of me agrees with Rich and understands why he's doing it, but I feel like he's overreacting a bit, too. Stevie is different, most notably because he's a real person. Reading about Stevie through his BLOG is nothing compared to encountering Stevie in real life, and I think that the performance is where his beauty is. the Robert Hamburger stuff is funny jokes on the page, but a run-in with Stevie is what I imagine a run-in with Tony Clifton must have been like. Anyway, I hope that Stevie ain't really dead.

In other news, I have just purchased the latest MY MORNING JACKET cd, put out by Sony BMG, and it's loaded with all of this copyright protection software, and it's absolute BULLSHIT. It's a major pain just trying to put the thing on my computer or to make a backup of the cd.

Saturday, December 24, 2005

Be Home Soon

What a good day yesterday was. It was one of those rare good days that didn't go by super-fast, but actually felt like a nice, long, good day.

It started off not too fun, because my Ipod went back on the fritz, so after a couple of hours of screwing around with it, I popped the damn thing open with a knife, disconnected the battery and the hard drive, then reconnected them and now it's working better than ever. So I'll have nice tunes to listen to pn the plane today.

Got to spend time with Jeannie yesterday, too, which was awesome. I did some dishes and worked on laundry, and cut little tape strips from a roll of packing tape because she was wrapping presents and we didn't have any scotch tape.

We fly out of here this afternoon, then it's off to Jeannie's family gathering, mass at SLUH, and then the Ritz for our (now) annual tradition of drinks with Eric Elz at the Ritz on Christmas Eve. Much to my chagrin, Senor Bosco and his wife Susan will not be joining us for drinks this year, as they are in Wichita. That definitely puts a damper on the party.

Hope everyone has a very merry, safe, and happy Christmas and New Years. Also hope to see as many folks as possible while we're in St. Louis. We'll be back on the 28th.

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Aaaaaah.

Woo Hoo! Done with work until after Christmas! Yee-Haw!

Today was surprisingly easy. Very busy but we were well-staffed so it wasn't so bad.

Tonight Aimee stopped by as Jeannie and I were making breakfast-for-dinner, which was nice, and then Jeannie and I sat around and did not much of anything. We're both pretty tired.

And if anyone wants to know what happened on 'Without a Trace," the autistic boy was found and nobody had done anything bad to him. It was revealed during the course of the show, however, that he wasn't the biological son of the guy who everybody thought was his dad. But all in all, the show was pretty darned dumb.

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Feeding Frenzy

Well, we've reached the point in the holiday season when things are absolutley crazy and the store starts resembling a market in Calcutta. Today was insanity, which actually at times put me in a very Zen state of near total calm. The only part that wasn't very Zen-like was that at the center of the calm was a burning hatred for whatever customer I happened to be looking at or speaking to.

As I was walking out to my car, it was sunset, and I saw somebody who looked a lot like BJ Gailey and I instantly missed him tremendously and I felt like I wanted to cry for a minute.

What a fun evening last night. Mary Ann and Pat came over, and Jeannie gave me a Christmas present early, the game APPLES TO APPLES, which holy jeez is it a fun game. We also ate lots of yummy soup (gonna have more tonight) and homemade bread. Fun stuff.

One more day of work and then I'm done with all this Christmas nonsense.

Monday, December 19, 2005

Dec. 19th and counting...

Right now I am unfortunately listening to David Bowie and Mick Jagger singing "Dancing in the Streets." Listening to it makes me picture a mid-80's Bowie and Jagger jumping around in tight pants, while African-American women sing back-up wearing colorful blazers with large shoulder pads.

There's so much to write about, where to begin?

I will begin with a couple of shout-outs. First a shout-out to Seanyboy in Alaska, who wrote to tell me that he, too, has pee'd where it's not cool to pee. On at least one occasion, though, he was awake, so his is far worse than mine.

Second, a big Cross Keys Cougars shout-out to my old friend Colleen, who wrote to tell me that she occasionally reads the blog and likes Eddie Murphy's "Party All the Time." Colleen has been a friend since the 7th grade, when I looked like this:


So she gets sent mad props for befriending me when I wasn't the cool guy who sits before you now.

The song has now switched to Tom Waits', "What's he building?" If I could have the career of anyone on earth, it would be Tom Waits. He can do whatever he wants.

Work has been maddening in a big way. I'm just tired of looking at and listening to people. 3 more days until I'm off and then I'm off for Christmas and Jeannie and I head home for a few days and I absolutely can't wait.

Jeannie is at painting class, she's been working on a series of nighttime cityscapes that I've really been enjoying. They're dark with little drips of light showing through every now and again. Good stuff. She's been cooking a lot lately, we've busted out the ol' crock pot and made a roast a few nights ago, and she's making another batch of potato soup tonight and we made a couple batches of chocolate chip cookies on Sunday.

I screwed up my back working on the set on Friday, and the pain has lessened in my back but spread to my ass and leg. It makes work extra-not fun. But I have learned the joys of a piping hot heating pad.

Friday, December 16, 2005

Strange Days.

Well, interesting things have happened. It goes like this...


I went out last night with Patrick and Elizabeth from work to go see Flora's band, THE METAL HEARTS, at the Ottobar. The band was very good, even better than their cd, mainly because they've added a live drummer which really helps fill out their sound. I drank way too much, then drove Patrick home and then drove myself home. By the grace of god I made it home safely, had a conversation with Jeannie that I don't really remember, and went to bed.

The rest of this story is related to me by Jeannie, I don't really remember it beause I was asleep. As far as I know, the whole thing could be a lie she made up, but anyway, here's what she tells me: at some point in the middle of the night, she woke to the sound of some splashing noises and saw me standing by a cabinet near our bed taking a leak in the corner of our bedroom. She told me to stop and I said, "What...it's just a CD," and she said, "No! It's a cabinet" at which point I stopped peeing, got back into bed and went back to sleep.

So....

This morning I woke up and Jeannie was already at work. I felt pretty bad, puked some water and felt better, then went to the CSC offices to work on the set for the next show. When I got home I cleaned up where Jeannie told me that I pee'd (the pee must have dried up or something because there wasn't any pee there when I got home) made some dinner, and now Jeannie and I are back up here at the CSC offices because she wanted to paint some cityscapes and I came along to keep her company.

What have we learned from this?

1. No more drinking and driving. I've been far too lucky with that shit, and it's absolutely one of the stupidest things in the world to do, so I'm done with it.

2. It seems that I have about 1 session of heavy puke-inducing drinking per year. I would like these sessions to spread out even more as time progresses.

3. I would like to keep bedroom urinations to an absolute minimum. They are embarassing and they make your wife mad at you. They're also bad for hardwood floors.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Good News

I'll start with the good news: Jeannie's throat is A-OK. She had her doctor's appointment and they stuck the ol' camera down there (her throat) and said it all looks normal. Her voice might have been feeling funny because the cadaver-skin injections that she got a few months ago might be wearing off....and yes, I included this sentence just to show off the fact that my wife has had cadaver skin injected into her throat.

Now on to the b-crap....

Aimee and MAW came over for dinner last night, Jeannie cooked up a delicious potato soup from scratch, along with some homemade bread...damn, 'twas good. Made my pee pee smell like onions. We sat at our table like a family and it was fun. Then Mary Ann and I went to B&N for some late-night employee discount usage. Came home and Aimee had fallen asleep on the couch. Hopefully she made it home alive.

Work has been fine, busy, annoying, but the mantra has helped. I want to kill my boss because I have been busting my ass and working overtime and he doesn't seem to be putting in any extra effort for the holidays.

I enjoyed reading my friends' blogs tonight. Nice to hear that Ricky Elz is still alive (think of me when you watch Zisou) and that Richie Rich listens to country music while driving on Midwestern highways. Learn something new every day.

Today I got in an argument with an old woman who was upset that our signs say "Holiday Music" instead of "Christmas Music." I ended up telling her I was Muslim and that I refused to have this conversation with her. It's all so very, very stupid.

Tomorrow night: going to see the Metal Hearts at the Ottobar with people from work. A couple of firsts: the first time I'm going to hang out outside of work with people from work, and the first live music I'm going to see since I've been in Baltimore. Wait, I take that back. Jeannie and I went to see the Twilight Singers at Fletcher's. My ears rang for about a week and a half after that show and I was very worried that I had some permanent nerve damage.

Monday, December 12, 2005

Sweet Sweet Guinness

Today was one of those days that makes me understand why holiday retail workers are portrayed as frazzled alcoholics. It started off with me yelling at my boss for no apparent reason when I got to work and went steadily downhill from there.

The good news: Danny Dolan has apparently successfully pimped me out once again. He said he gave some of my music to the director of the movie he's working on and the director is interested in using as much as possible for the movie. So far this is all still up in the air, but it's good news, nonetheless.

Jeannie is, I assume, at painting class. She's not here. I look forward to seeing her when she gets home because she's good at making me concentrate less on my job and more on my awesome wife. At the moment we're worried that her throat thing might have grown back. She has a doctor's appointment on Wednesday to check it out.

I'm going to go pop some corn and become a vegetable.

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Autopilot

Well, I'm thinking not much interesting will happen for the next couple of days because I'm just going to be working a lot. And work's been busy but un-interesting, which is good at this time of year, no horror stories yet of terrible, christmas-ruining customers. My co-worker Brian always points out a customer when she comes into the store, "There's the lady that ruined my Christmas 2 years ago." None of those yet. My mantra has been helping.

Had a good time last night dining out with Jeannie and Aimee, celebrating Aimee's birfday and then hanging out shooting the shit at home.

Today was a long day, but it's good to be home with Jeannie and stinky gas and a delicious, relatively strong G&T. Stronger than I thought it would be.

"We say, when a horse is on the grass, it is like when a man is on the grass."

Does anyone get that reference?

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Lazarus, come out!

Today was a damned good day, for a variety of reasons, but one of the main reasons is that after extensive internet research I have managed to bring my Ipod back from the dead.

It died over a year ago, and I tried to fix it to no avail, took it to the Apple store and they told me that the hard drive had failed and that for the cost of repairing it I could get a new one. So it's sat in my desk for the last year because we don't have the money to fix it.

So today I decided to do some more research and found some stuff on the internet that was very helpful, and eventually I got it back up and running. Woo-Hoo!

Pat came over tonight for homemade pizza and Ali G watching. Fu-hunny.

Work tomorrow. I've decided not to get bent out of shape over anything that happens at work. My holiday mantra is: "I will take my time and help every customer to the best of my ability. The rest I don't care about."

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

I'm Tired.

Nasty day at work today. Glad I'm off tomorrow. I wish that I could go to sleep and when I woke up it would be 11pm on Dec. 24th and I'm sitting at the Ritz kickin' it with Ricky Elz and some cupfuls of G&T.

This morning I saw a woman doing tai chi on the lawn across the street, which was not odd because she's often doing tai chi in the morning. But today ahe was doing tai chi and had a big damned sword. The sword part was odd.

Jeannie's cooking black beans and rice, and it be smellin real fine.

I finished the book I was reading, "The Tender Bar," (it was ok), and it referenced "the Great Gatsby" a lot, which I have never read, so I'm thinking about reading "The Great Gatsby." Part of me is worried that it will be kind of lame. For all of you who read "The Great Gatsby" in high school, if I read it now will it be lame?

Saturday, December 03, 2005

What the Heck's Been Going On?

Has nothing really been happening? I have scoured my thoughts and feelings, replayed the last couple of days in my mind to find anything interesting that's been going on, and come up with not much.

I think I'm still in Thanksgiving withdrawal.

Here's what's been going on:

1. I am tired of looking at Eric Elz' post, "The Fruits of My Labor." Eric, are you dead? Come on, man, wake up! I mean, the picture looks great and all, but move on!

2. Rich Riley's post, "Sodalicious," is perhaps one of the greatest things I have ever heard. Magical, wonderful, the stuff of which dreams are made. What a great piece of enchanted machinery.

3. Jeannie and I are toying around with the idea of going to the bank and seeing if it's even possible for us to think about buying a house. It's probably not. Poor folks like us is meant to rent.

4. Jeannie's working on a painting (actually, she's working on copying a painting), and I've been taking pictures of it as it progresses. Could make for an interesting album cover.

5. Reading "The Tender Bar," on the recommendation of my father. It's ok. I'm just surprised that my dad has recommended a book that makes at least occasional use of the word "fuck" and has scenes that contain sexual situations. I feel all growed up.

That's all. It's pretty boring. The holiday season is here and that gives work the potential to suck every day. So far, nothing terrible.