Monday, December 31, 2007

Tangram!

Old Aunt Amy put so much interesting stuff on her new auxiliary blog that I had to link to it. Oblique strategies are awesome. Also, the trailer for the new season of LOST looks pretty damned awesome. But, I must remind myself, trailers were invented to make even bad things look awesome.

Katie the North American Wanderer has been staying at our place for a few days. It's been fun, and I'm glad that my wife gets to hang out with her buddy. This is the first time that I can remember that I've been off work on New Years Eve, and we're all planning on going for a hike at Gunpowder Falls State Park. Then some folks might be coming over tonight and we'll try and think of something fun to do.

Jeannie got me the tangram set that I wanted for Christmas. Tangrams are awesome.

Also, my cousin Mark e-mailed me today and asked if I would listen to some of the songs he's written over the last 20 years and re-record them for him. Sounds like a big job but it should be fun.

This post is choppy but I'm having trouble focusing.

Friday, December 28, 2007

A quick trip and a stupid mistake

Christmas is over.

We had a good, fast, busy trip to St. Louis. Here are the high- and low- lights. In chronological muthafuckin' order.

1. 12/24/07, 5pm-ish. Arrive in St. Louis. Eat Foo's egg rolls, which I have heard about for years, and discover that they are as good as everyone says. They may ruin every egg roll I ever eat in the future.

2. 12/24/07, 11pm-1:30am, Drinks at the Ritz with Elz-ee-poo. I give him his Christmas present, the Black Beret Shower Cap.


3. 12/25/07, Various and sundry Christmas festivities. Then that night got a lovely call from J. Knese and met him and his brother and Casey and the Widitz' and K. Lowery. Ended up back at Jeff and Casey's and ate a burrito from QT called "The Bomb." I regretted it almost immediately, but it did end up making an interesting turd the next day.

4. 12/26/07 The Annual Day After Christmas O'Brien Ice Skating excursion. This year joined by R. Riley. Definitely a major highlight of the trip. Nice to shoot the shit. I should also mention that soon after waking up on the morning of the 26th, Jeannie's brother saw me naked. "I didn't see anything but hair." Fairly accurate.



5. 12/27/07 - Running around, trying to see people. More belated Christmas festivities. Aborted roasted vegetables.

6. 12/28/07 - Up at 6am and off to the airport. Arrive in B-more around 11:30, take the train, then a taxi to our apartment. While hailing the taxi, get a call from Korn, wondering where I am. Turns out I made a mistake and scheduled myself to work today at noon. Oops. So I haul ass and get home and then head out the door to work.
So I was late for work today and Korn had to work harder than she should've had to, for which I apologize.

That's it. Of course, much much more happened, but I think that I've covered all the things that I'd like to look back on and remember fondly.

And I'm tired of work and I haven't even been there for the last 3.5 days.

Friday, December 21, 2007

It's All Worthwhile

Work has been busy as hell. But dammit if it hasn't been kinda fun, too.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Peak

Well, we're in the thick of it at work, and I've been getting sick for the last few days. So it was a good day to not have to go into work in the morning. I went to bed last night around 8pm, and then when I woke up at midnight I took some cold medicine so I could go back down for the rest of the night. Which has helped, but I still feel a bit under the weather. Hopefully work this evening won't be too bad.

Work has been extremely busy but not hellish (yet). This weekend should be a killer.

Went to dinner with the Jeanners at Eric (her old boss) and Lauren's place on Tuesday night. It was a good time. I'm feeling more relaxed there than I used to (as was evidenced by the lack of red wine at Tuesday's dinner) and we had a good time playing the game "Loaded Questions." Then after the dinner I went down to the 8x10 to check out John's band, "The Vespertine Movement." Terrible name. The show was decent. I felt very old. Reminded me a lot of Bernard's Pub. I wore earplugs.

That's about it. Right now I'm just focused on getting through work and getting rid of this cold. I'm currently going to try and kill it with a delicious bacon n' schmeggs breakfast, because I hear that bacon is one of the most deadly substances on Errff.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Memories

The past couple of posts have highlighted some problems that I have with my memory, and they're problems that I've known were there, so I'm not too concerned, but it reminds me of a very specific memory problem that I remember mentioning to E. Elz while he was visiting and we went to DC:

I have a vivid vivid memory of going into a Smithsonian building to use the restrooms, and I am with the Schluetermetz' in this memory. The only problem is that I've never been to DC with the Schluetermetz'. But if I didn't know that I've never been to DC with the Schluetermetz', I would swear that this memory actually occurred. I can remember strange details about the building, I can remember the path we took to the restrooms, and I can remember what the bathrooms were like.

I don't mind forgetting shit, but I don't like making up stuff that never happened.

Another Errata post

The Jeanners read the last post and pointed out the following mistakes:

1. It's December, not November. But today kinda felt like a November day.

2. "The Day of the Mind-Blowing Physical Demonstration of the Bell Curve" took place not at the St. Louis Science Center, but rather the Baltimore Science center. And the Schluetermetz' were not there.

Apologies to all.

DOB: Lover of Anorexics

Today the Jeanners and I spent a good many hours walking to and around Hampden, looking for Christmas presents for various folks, and then walked to the grocery store and then home. Lots of walking, and a very weird weather day. Windy, with big menacing-looking impressive clouds. Birds flying around. It was a November day where all the colors seemed very rich, but the predominant feel is a light gray.

Anyway, now we're sitting at the kitchen table, listening to some Carpenters christmas tunes and eating little pizzas.

Somehow I've managed to schedule myself 3 of the last four days off work. Which is nice now, but it does mean that I'll be working a solid seven days in a row right before Christmas. Which means that I'll be good and ready to get out of town and head home for the holidays.

Here's my Christmas list for 2007:

1. Booze. Beer of any kind, or cheap gin. Cheap red wine is a perennial favorite.

2. "Tao of the Tangram." This is a tangram set that we've been selling at the B&N. My fascination with tangrams stems from a day spent at the St. Louis Science Center with BJ and maybe the Schluetermetz'. I can't really remember. That day lives in my memory as "The Day of the Mind-Blowing Physical Demonstration of the Bell Curve." It was the day when the proverbial Zen Master hit me with the proverbial stick and pushed me in the proverbial mud.

3. That's about it, really.

Yes, PKP, there are a lot of Back to the Future references in my blog, and I won't apologize for it. Back to the Future has some sort of mystical role in my life, it guides my ways, and helps me make sense out of a sometimes senseless world. So does The Karate Kid, and while I don't reference it as much in the blog, I assure you that it's taking up just as much space in my brain. I would estimate that, together, Back to the Future (numbers 1 & 2) and The Karate Kid (again, numbers 1 & 2 ONLY) take up about 35% of my available mental RAM.

Finished 1984 today. What a good good book. I liked it in high school and I liked it even more now.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Great Scott!

Last night in the shower I had a startling realization. See if you can follow me...


So in the movie Back to the Future, Marty McFly travels from 1985 to 1955, a time-distance of 30 years. In just 3 short years, someone could make a movie about someone traveling back to the year 1980, and that would be a 30 year distance, too.

Jeannie agreed that this seemed f@*#'ed up. Does anyone else out there feel like this is f@*#'ed up? Doesn't the span between 1955 and 1985 seem infinitely longer than the span between 1980 and now-ish?

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Above the Weather

Worked on music all day today, with semi-decent results, I think. I also managed to clean up our kitchen this morning. Didn't get to laundry, though. Maybe tomorrow.

Short and Curlies

There's a short, curly dark hair on our kitchen table. Before you get too alarmed, you should know that it looks more like a chest hair than a pube. I find the spell-checker on this blog to be horribly lacking, as even the word "pube" is getting underlined as a mistake. How can one be expected to compose a decent blog post if one can't use the words "titties" and "pube"?

My baby is back home safe from Tennessee, and is currently (hopefully) asleep in the the other room. I didn't really get to see her today, as she was out of the house by 6:00 this morning and then I was at work when she got home tonight. She called me at work when she got home and said she had a splitting headache, so I hope she was able to get to sleep.

I didn't sleep well last night. Was thinking about work stuff and my mouth was too dry (two unrelated problems), so after tossing and turning for an hour or two I went in the living room and slept on the couch. For some reason, a change of scenery usually helps me get to sleep, and also the living room is usually kinda chilly, and I sleep better when it's cold.

I'm very excited that we might get to see Rich R. over our Christmas trip to the Lou, and maybe again if he's on the East Coast for New Years'.

I have the day off tomorrow, and I'm torn about what I should do. Part of me thinks I should spend the day doing chores -- laundry and cleaning especially, and part of me thinks that the chores can wait and I should play around with recording stuff all day. I will probably end up doing chores. Maybe.

Tonight part of me also felt like using my day off to drive to Atlantic City and do some gambling. Don't know exactly why that came up. It's been a long time since I've done anything like that, which is probably for the best. I think it's fairly safe to say that that's NOT what I will be doing with my day off.

I've been noticing lately that my short term memory is slipping a little bit...too much gin, probably.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Holidays, Skates and Sleighs, It's Christmas Time at O'Briens....

The title of this post is taken from a re-write of the song "Silver Bells," that my family wrote and performed in (I think) 1983 for my extended family Christmas party. All of the families had to take a Christmas song and rewrite the lyrics to fit their family. That's just a little bit about my background....

It's officially holiday time at the B&N, and I have been subsequently busy. Going in on my days off, working longer days, that sort of thing. But so far, nothing absolutely shitty has happened, and no major scheduling snafus, so I'm content. And, I'm looking forward to enjoying a bona fide day off on Thursday, with nothing to do except cook up a big bacon n' eggs breakfast to celebrate.

Last night I went to a Doll's House rehearsal, because I was feeling a little uncertain about the set and about how the set was working with the rehearsals. I'm really glad I went. It turns out that none of us were really on the same page about how the set was really supposed to work, so as a result the set is kind of evolving around what's happening in rehearsals. I like a process where that can happen. I think it serves the production a lot better to have enough time to let things evolve and change based on what the actors are doing. Plus, going to the rehearsal last night gave me a chance to watch Pat and Schlegel do some really nice work. The cast has only had 8 rehearsals, and I think they're already in such a good place that I can't wait to see the finished product.

Jeannie is going to Tennessee tomorrow on a business trip. She's only going for the day, though. Nevertheless, I will kind of miss her.

I finished reading Brave New World. I have no idea why I found that book to be compelling and exhilarating when I first read it. I now found it to be, well, kinda dumb. And I'm wondering if it was actually a different book that I read back then that made me happy. If it was, I can't remember what it was. Anyway, I've moved on to 1984, and that one is living up to my fond memories of first reading it.

Tomorrow: split shift with laundry in the middle. Chinese food?

Friday, December 07, 2007

Damn the Bigwigs

So yesterday and today were supposed to be my days off this week, but because the bigwigs were coming I went in and worked almost an entire shift yesterday, and then went in this morning as well. Needless to say, the bigwigs never showed up. Damn the bigwigs! Plus, I woke up last night at 2am, thinking about work, actually wishing that the store was open so I could go in and straighten things up. What's wrong with me?! I had to go into the shitter and read about Led Zeppelin until I got sleepy again.

I think that the main problem lies in the fact that I rarely, if ever, get any sort of real evaluation at work. So when people are coming who could very well evaluate my work (and not necessarily in a positive way) I freak out a little bit.

So I went in this morning (using the excuse that I needed to do a little Christmas shopping) and was told that there was good intelligence that the bigwigs would not be out visiting stores today. So I did my shopping and came home. I am celebrating my few hours off by cooking a big bacon n' schmeggs breakfast. So the question on the table is: do I want scrambled eggs in a tortilla? Or a bacon. egg, and cheese sandwich? Or just bacon and eggs with toast and juice?

The other night when I went to bed, I felt bad about making a crack about BJ's podcast. The truth is, I always am hungry for new episodes from them, and, (and perhaps more importantly), when I'm done listening to one of their shows I'm always interested in seeing/listening to/reading whatever it was they were talking about (with the exception of the Christian Rock). In fact, while I was at the Noble today I re-bought 1984 and Brave New World (somehow I've lost my copies of those books). I remember when I first read Brave New World,

(HOLY SHIT I JUST DISCOVERED WE'RE OUT OF EGGS)(MUST GO GET SOME...)

when I fist read Brave New World, it was either my senior year of college or the year after college, and I remember finishing the book alone in my apartment, and feeling so exhilarated that I was literally running through the streets to the bars, feeling very excited and full of life. And I went to Woody's (the bar that they built behind the Wooden Nickel)(actual full name Woody's in the Rear) and ended up I think playing some guitar and singing with a Kirksville guy named Buddy. Anyway, I have forgotten exactly what the story in Brave New World is, so I'm hoping that when I finish reading it again I get the same feeling of exhilaration.

Ok, I'm gonna go walk to Eddie's and buy some eggs. I've decided on bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches.

Thursday, December 06, 2007

No Sleep till B'more

Probably because I spent a good portion of the afternoon sleeping, I now find myself wide awake and not ready to hit the hay, although the Jeanners has been in bed for awhile, and since I'm working tomorrow I probably should go to bed. But instead I'm up and enjoying a G&T and some chips and salsa. Which, by the way, if you haven't tried Trader Joe's Double-Roasted Salsa, you should cause it's good. Although it would be better with corn in it. But then again, what wouldn't?

I was listening to The Killers on the way home from work and decided that they are the Styx of our generation. Not bad, but a little overblown and kind of embarrassing. Though they probably sound more like Queen. And I really probably haven't listened to enough Killers or enough Styx to make the comparison, but there it is.

Not too much on the brain this evening. Life just seems to be rolling along. The J-Dog seems to be liking her job a bit more than she was a month or so ago. The weather's getting colder and our heat seems to be working at least some of the time, which is a nice improvement over last year. Although it could just be that we're spending less time in the living room, which has the radiator with the most problems. Yesterday I ran low on laundry and had to wear underwear to work that were way too tiny. I felt very European. J-Dog and I did laundry last night, though, so today I'm feeling much better.

When I was a kid, we had a copy of the Styx album Cornerstone on vinyl. I can still picture the cover: a man's bare feet, standing on some sort of moonlike terrain, shining a flashlight on an album that's kinda been placed in this crater, and on the cover of the album it says "Cornerstone." I think. I could be making that last part up. Let's go find it on the web.


Well, unfortunately that's the largest version of the cover art that I could find, so I guess we'll never know exactly what's on the cover of that album that's in the crater.

Well, I'm starting to get a little sleepy but I've still got quite a bit of G&T left (all this typing is getting in the way of my sipping!), so let's keep going...

I'm looking forward to going to see John K.'s (from work) band, which will be playing at the 8X10 on December 18th. It will be only the 3rd or 4th instance of live music that I will have seen since moving to Baltimore over 5 years ago. I'm not usually a fan of seeing live shows because
A) In the words of Huey Lewis in Back to the Future, they're "just too darn loud."
2) They're generally kind of boring and uninteresting and generic.

I do, however, remember going to Frederick's Music Lounge quite a bit when I used to live in St. Louis. I liked Fred's a lot, mostly because I used to get the feeling that I was in some sort of weird guy's basement when I went there. And while there was some general hipster-ness going on while I was there, it was definitely dominated by a spirit of wild inclusiveness and embarrassing innocence rather than coolness or posturing. I don't know. I'll probably spend the rest of my life looking for another hangout like Fred's. It's too bad that it's gone.

But anyway, in the spirit of trying to be more social, I'm looking forward to seeing John's show. I'm not expecting to like the music much, though. We'll see.

Ooo, also on the way home from work this evening, I think I might have summed up in my head a common thread in most of the art I like: the process is the product. I think that a good percentage of the modern or recent art that I've liked has some inherent reference to it's own creation. Probably more in literature than in other stuff, but still, I think it's definitely there in other stuff, too. It's not any sort of huge revelation, but I think being able to sum up things that I like may be useful in the future...

Ok, the last half of this post is starting to sound way too much like one of BJ's podcasts ("wild inclusiveness", "embarrassing innocence", "inherent reference to it's own creation")(ha ha ha)(and I love you, BJ), so I'd better go to bed now...

p.s. Elizabeth called me at work this evening and said "David Bowie is here," and it took me a few seconds before I realized that she was talking about the David Bowie CD that I had sent her...

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Doing da splitz

Today I worked a weird split shift, so I got to come home at 1pm, but I have to go back in tonight at 8. And at around 10 this morning, it started snowing a most lovely, quiet, soft, wet, snow. Which was fun. And then after work, Brian G. and I headed over to the Rec Room for burgers. Unfortunately not half-priced, but nonetheless good.

I have to go into work tomorrow on my damned day off because there's going to be some bigwigs there. Bah.

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Pickle and the Indians

Crapola. I have a bit of a splitting headache. Busy day at work yesterday, and busy today. The two days have seemed like one long, busy day.

Bewley was in town last night and called me at work. We met when I got off and had some Guinness. 'Twas good to see her.

It's nice to be home. A few minutes ago I took off my shoes and sock and snuggled my feet under the blankets on our bed. It felt good.

I'm having a hard time coming up with things that I want for Christmas.