Hair Ditch.

Man, yesterday I had a real bad day and I got all mad at the eye doctor (long story). But then today was a much better day and I got to play some geek games with Pat and BJ.

Pat and BJ and the Jeanners and I went down to Rocky Run for some .5 priced burgers before myself and the boys left for rehearsal. I'm currently at rehearsal, where line problems continue to bog down the process.

Anyway. That's about it for now.

"I hate BJ, I hate Jeannie, gonna live my life alone."

That's my song that I made up for the morning.

Today my motivation to go to work is very very low. The day has great potential for suckage. Oh well, it's only one day, how bad could it be?

I got an e-mail from Ron R. the other day. He is now a grandpa and overworked and will be directing Batboy: The Musical.

Hmmm. What else? Rehearsals continue in a sometimes-annoying, sometimes-fun fashion. Work is in always-annoying mode. Life at home with the Jeanners and BJ is always fun but very sedentary.

Anyway, that's all I got for the day.

Half-naked homeless insulter

For the past few days I've been closing at work, which I haven't done very much for awhile. Closing is easy as hell. I've been getting a lot of work done and there have been very few customers (which in the grand scheme is a bad thing but it's allowed me to get a lot of work done). Last night part of my job was to babysit a half-naked homeless man in the restroom for 20 minutes to make sure he didn't mess with any customers. The reason that I had to babysit him was because we were kicking him out because he was completely naked in the bathroom, giving himself a bath. Which is fine and all, but you can't be completely naked. And if you are gonna be completely naked, you can't verbally abuse the people that come in to tell you that you can't be completely naked. So while I stood and babysat him, he spewed forth many insults, including "You are an asshole, pal." and "You are a disgrace to the white race." (Strangely, the homeless man was white and he kept telling me I was a racist and a disgrace to the white race. I think that he was proposing that I was prejudiced against the white race.) He also told me that he would punch me in the face if he didn't think he would go to jail for it. He was fun.

So work has been a little more annoying and a little more mind-numbing than usual, and I've also been a little stressed about it, which sucks.

But rehearsals have been fine, and I've been thoroughly enjoying watching BJ at rehearsals. I haven't seen him in a non-Shakespeare show since college, and it's a lot of fun to watch him in something relatively contemporary. I think he's got the right amount of "BJ" in this character, and the lines are well-written, so it's a good combination.

I haven't gotten to spend as much time with the Jeanners as I usually do. I miss my baby.


Sean is talking about coming for a visit in April to hang out and work on recording some of his songs. I think this sounds like a super super good idea. I have been missing the Seanyboy and I'm looking forward to working on some of his tunes. Bring it on, Seanyboy!

Slide

I have not been very motivated lately. At work, at home, at anywhere. It's been this way for awhile, probably since before Christmas, and I haven't really wanted to do anything at all. I'm not minding it so much at the moment, it kind of feels like a little vacation from real life, but I have a feeling that in a month or so I'm going to try to be a little monk with lots of tea, exercise, less food and drink, and lots of music. Who knows, the exact opposite might happen.

I've been listening to a Colin Hay CD (Going Somewhere) that BJ bought the other day. He's the guy from Men at Work, and he's got a few solo CD's where it's pretty much just him and an acoustic guitar. He's got a nice voice that lends itself well to the stripped down stuff. Anyway, I think Sean is going to be driving him around Alaska in May, and if you can tell anything about a person from their songs, I think he and Sean will get along well.

I've also been listening to The Joshua Tree again lately, trying to dissect what it was that turned me on to that album so much when I was a little kid. At the time, it was probably the guitars and singing, but when I listened to it the other day, I was surprised at how the main things I focused on were the synths and backing vocals. That album has way more synths on it than I used to think. Anyway, that's what I've been listening to.

Cockblockery!

Well, it's been awhile since I wrote, and here's the skinny on the lowdown of what's been going on.

Friday night had folks from the B&N over for games and drinks. I drank too much, got real drunk, spent the night on the bathroom floor. Spent Saturday puking and recovering. The games on Friday were fun, though.

Work today, then tonight the Aimee came over and we've all just been hanging out. It snowed this afternoon and we all had a nice walk to get some Chinese food.

Hmmm. The blog posts just get lamer and lamer. Life is fine, though.

Tonight the game Skip-Bo has been renamed "Cockblockery!".

Par-tay!

Tonight after work, we are having B and N people over to play games and drink. This morning I felt like my dad before a party, making sure I had enough ice and enough to eat and drink. It was a productive 1.5 hours.

I am now off to make the poo and get ready for work.

Blasts from the Past

Last night BJ was looking at old pictures from college that he had scanned onto his computer, most of which I had never seen before. Here's some of the highlights.


Big Daddy James, in a lot of his glory.


Me and the Schluetermetz', back when we were young and carefree and I still wore jeans. I miss that office. I still have that white T-shirt...


No comment necessary, really.


Flip Manuever!


The Beej gets his face licked by Drew and Swoboda. I sense enjoyment in all of the particapants except Swoboda.


A very very young BJ dances with a young-ish Big Daddy, while a very very young DOB pushes back his mop of forgotten hair stage right.


In addition to taking this stroll down memory lane, last night after rehearsal BJ taught Jeannie and I the correct way to play Skip-Bo, which after losing several time s I declared to be the Lamest Game. I won a couple of times today, though, so it's not too bad anymore.

Stupid Popcorn

Yesterday turned out to be a relaxing day of people working on their own stuff. Jeannie worked on her design project, the BJ and I played spades and we all talked and listened to music.

Then in the evening we went out to Aimee's, went to Don Pablo's for dinner, hit the liquor store and then back to Aimee's for games and G&T's. We played one of my christmas-gift games (Catchphrase) which was a lot of fun, and we also played some of the old standby's, Scattergories and Apples to Apples.

But then, after we got home Jeannie and I had a little argument about popcorn, which in hindsight seems to be a really silly thing to have an argument about. But I had probably had too much G&T and was being an argumentative ass. So my goal today is to not be an ass and to be nice and sweet.

For the last few weeks I've been feeling more insecure than I have since I was about 18. Why? Is it because of the approaching 30th birthday? Because of boredom at work combined with a fear of being stuck with the boredom? I've always thought that I would be able to sidestep any sort of midlife crisis, but if this is what approaching 30 feels like, I'm guessing 40 will be a lot worse.

Saturday Morning

This morning, BJ and Jeannie and myself headed to the farmers' market, and then to the Book Thing (a free bookstore a few blocks from our house). Then home for some bacon and eggs. I'm in desperate need of a shower.

Here's some pictures of some cool kids and their morning adventures:


BJ and Jeannie on the way to the market.


BJ contemplates something above him.


B. Gailey, dock worker.


A cute boy I saw sitting outside the Book Thing.

Lazy sack.

I haven't been blogging. I haven't been returning e-mails. Why? Because BJ is in town and my time-wasting skills become keenly honed when the BJ is in town.

A lot of time has been wasted, but it's been fun. We've been having some rehearsals (I'm worried that the technical details could detract from what will, I think, be an otherwise good show) (but it's still early), and playing some Nintendo Wii (which is strange but fun) and have had one late night game of three person YouknowTodd (Uno) with BJ, the Jeanners and myself. Tomorrow night the plan is to get together with the Aimee and play some games. I seriously can't wait. I'm in a good mood tonight because I accidentally gave myself the whole weekend off, and didn't realize that I did it until yesterday. I'm looking forward to it, though.

I just finished my christmas-gift bag of chocolates from someplace in St. Louis called Henry and James' Chocolates or something like that. They were delicious. Given to me by the Jeanners' sister-in-law. Which is not my sister, but rather Jeannie's brother's wife.

This post is remarkably rambly and, I fear, uninteresting. Oh well. I guess it's good when your life is more fun than your blog posts.

Update

The Beej arrived last night (late) and we started rehearsals for The Front Page tonight with a read-though. The read-through was pretty funny, and it's going to be great to hang out with Pat and the Beej while we work on the show.

I am off work tomorrow! I think I'll have a normal day of errands and hopefully a trip to the gym. Then rehearsal tomorrow night. Whee!

Red Red Wine

Well, I got everything accomplished off of yesterday's list (I realized that I used the word 'little' in the list 3 times!) except that the recording didn't really work right because I'm having problems with some of my cables. And I was going to call Melissa from work but then noticed that her schedule doesn't change until next week. So I didn't need to call her. But I got all the other stuff done and went to the gym and got the oil changed in my car. And took a nap. What more can one do in a day?

Tonight the Jeanners and I watched one of our Netflix movies, Bringing Up Baby, with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn. It wasn't that great. Luckily, we had a big bottle of red wine that we had opened last night for dinner that we didn't want to go bad. So we drank red wine throughout the movie, which made the whole situation a lot better. Then, after the movie Jeannie checked her e-mail and had an e-mail from the Schlueteremetz' proposing a fake-Thanksgiving sometime in March. So we got really excited and semi-drunk dialed the Schluetermetz'. Sorry Schluetermetz'!

So I'm still drinking the red wine in an attempt to finish off the bottle. The Jeanners and I are currently in preparations to go for a walk. There is little in life that is better than taking a walk in chilly air after a bottle of red wine. With your bestest ladyfriend. Seriously.

Tomorrow on the day off:

1. To the gym!
2. To Guitar Center to buy some new cables with my 'secret Santa' $25 Guitar Center gift card.
3. Recording.

Tonight I got an e-mail from J. Scheuer, which is always nice. It sounds like he and his lady are doing well, married and living just north of San Francisco. Which is a pretty lovely place to be living, indeed.

Mmmm. This wine is good. Typing on a computer after red wine reminds me of college. Ha ha. College seems like a long time ago. I don't miss it, but I sure do like it when I get to see the people I used to hang out with. But I wouldn't trade my life now to go back. Ahh, I'm getting pretty drunk and nostalgic. For some reason, I enjoy having to concentrate really hard to get the keystrokes right.

Right now I'm on a semi-Kerouac kick. I picked up a book that I have, The Rolling Stone Book of the Beats. which is basically a collection of articles written about Beat authors (a good deal considering it's a decent read [for Beat fans] and was only $4.98 [a bargain book]}, and I've been re-reading the articles on Kerouac, and it makes me want to reread something of Kerouac's. Which will probably be Vanity of Duluoz, which I don't own but will probably end up buying in order to reread.

Tom Waits' 'The Piano Has Been Drinking' just came up randomly on the ol' mp3 player. Fitting. A great song. If you've never heard it, download it tomorrow.

And the song just changed to Ray Lamontange's (it's funny to hear customers come into the B&N and try to pronounce his name) 'Three More Days,' which is a good song but the Jeanners says it's way overplayed on Towson University's radio station.

Alright, it's time to go for a walk!

Free at last, free at last...

Ah-Ha! I have just finished a 6 day stretch of work that felt like a six month stretch, and I have two luscious days off stretched out before me, and nothing to fill them with, which sounds absolutely glorious. I just decided to make myself a tasty spaghetti dinner.

The other night I looked at Jenna Fischer's Myspace page and it made me wish I was famous.

Also, we have learned that the Beej will be staying with us for at least part of the time that he is in town for the Front Page, which is very exciting. Very very exciting. I can't wait for him to arrive. Cards! Games! Half-priced burgers!

Plans for tomorrow:

1, Try and figure out a good way to block out some of the cold air that's coming in through the skylight in our bathroom.
2. Maybe shop for a little space heater?
3. Work on a little recording.
4. Call Melissa from work to tell her that her schedule has changed a little.

Today at work a co-worker named Andrew gave me a cd that his band has just recorded, and I listened to a little bit of it on the way home. The first couple of songs were pretty dismissable, but the one I was listening to as I pulled up to our building I liked a lot. I'm interested in listening to the rest of the cd to see which way it goes.

A Lesson in True Love

The Jeanners showed me some true love this Christmas by getting me Neil Young's Harvest album. It was a selfless gesture because the Jeanners truly hates her some Neil Young. And ever since she got me the album I've been listening to it in the car and then I come home from work singing "Heart of Gold." So she's probably regretting getting me that CD. Or, she's regretting getting married to me.

I've been getting a ton of shit done at work, but it seems like there's a ton more to do before the department will be officially recovered from the hellish nightmare known to unbelievers as "The Holiday Season."

Last night the Jeanners and I rang in the new year by playing chess and watching my other Christmas gift, the new-ish Jeff Tweedy DVD, Sunken Treasure. The DVD is a series of solo acoustic shows that Tweedy played in the Northwest. I recommend it for any Wilco fans out there, especially Wilco fans who like to play acoustic guitar. Anyway, I was in bed by 11pm, and then mildly annoyed when I was awakened at midnight by the sound of fireworks. I think I shall officially mark this spot in my life as the moment I turned old. Huzzah!


p.s. I find it to be amusing that the word 'blog' is not in this blogger's spell-check. Also, whenever I write 'The Jeanners,' it suggests that I replace it with 'canners.'

After Christmas Sale!

The Jeanners and I arrived back in Baltimore Thursday night at around 1:30am, and I haven't had a chance to blog because A) I've been busy at work, and B) I'm sick.

I must've picked up something on the plane ride home, or from one of the numerous sick people we encountered in St. Louis, cause I've been feeling crappy and cold-like since Friday morning. Oh well. I don't get a chance to take a break until later this week.

So our trip was good. We got to see a lot people, including the Eric, the Drew, and the Karista. And we got to meet Eric's ladyfriend, who we had not met before. We also got to participate in many family events, and eat lots of holiday food.

Work looks like it could be a pain in the ass for a few days.

Here's some highlights from the visit to the Lou:


My niece and I take our skates off after ice skating.



Ricky checks his cell phone at the Ritz, X-mas Eve. Note the bling on his belt buckle.



Drew and Karista hit the mean streets of the Lou.



Perhaps the worst picture of Drew in existence? I stuck a camera in his face and the flash went off. Sorry, Drew.

12/23

Hmmm. Today was the busiest day in Towson B&N music department history. And to give you an idea of how busy it was, I will say this: it was goddamn muthafuckin' busy.

Also, today was the wake/viewing (I'm not exactly sure what the difference between a wake/viewing/memorial service is) for Elizabeth's dad. So I'm glad that I was able to get away from work for a little while to attend. Elizabeth is one of the best folks I've met here in Baltimore and I wanted to show props to her and her family.

Tomorrow after a half-day at work the Jeanners and I will board a plane for The Lou. Then tomorrow evening we'll be celebrating X-mas with the Anderson clan. Then, after that, it's drinks at the Ritz with Ricky Elz and friends and family! An annual treat.

I don't know if I'll get to blog from the road, so everybody have a great Christmas. Hopefully I'll get to see some folks that I haven't seen since last year, and I'll be sure to take lots of pictures.

I am resisting the urge to watch 'The View'...

...and I'm writing in my blog instead.

What a good morning it's been so far. Today's my day off, but I got up early this morning to go into work just to help make sure the day goes nicely for all the suckas that have to go the B&N today, and I headed to the gym and had a nice workout. Then I came home and made myself some bacon n' schmeggs and I've been hanging out with my girlfriend, singing along off-key'ly to Christmas carols and reading OAA's blog. Right now we're listening to a bit from the Nut-racker . I mean, Nutcracker.

Last night after work, the J-dog and I headed over to Aimee's, where we shot the shit and helped her with her large Christmas cookie baking tasks, and I got to satisfy my month-long craving for good ol' delivery pizza. Papa John weaved his magic, and I ate a whole damn pie. It was a good time, and it was good to hang with the A-train, who we don't see nearly as often as we should, and who seems to be enjoying life.

How shall I spend the rest of my day? The only things that are definite at this point are a shit and a shower.

Hangin' Over

I am proud that I didn't make any flagrant spelling or grammar mistakes in last night's post, as I was pretty drunk when I wrote it. I had to concentrate very hard to not screw anything up. And today I was feeling the pain. Not too bad (I didn't make salsa or sleep on the bathroom floor or anything) but 5:45 rolled around pretty early this morning.

This morning at work we had our secret santa gift exchange, and there was also a little luncheon for some of the folks, from which I got to eat some of the leftover scraps, which were very good. A nice ham sandwich with mayo and cheese. Eating it made me remember the 1 or 2 Christmases when I worked at Honeybaked Ham during X-mas break. When I learned the many many uses of ham fat. The best part about HH was that they paid for lunch every day, and laid out an awesome spread of ham, turkey, and other fixin's. Yum. I do not miss the job, though, because it was boring.

One more day closer to being done with the busiest time of year! Woo-Hoo!

Game and Gin Night

Tonight, after a relatively shit day at work (it actually wasn't too bad, considering that today was December 17th) we had Katie, Elizabeth (not from work) and Chris over for Chipotle, G&T's, and games. The Chipotle wasn't quite as good as the one in Towson (I thought) {I'll give it a couple of months to get better}, but the G&T's were good (and they did the trick), and the games were fun. Even for Elizabeth, who is a self-described non-game fan.

I'm ready for it to be December 26th. I'm tired of large crowds at work.

Jeannie bought some handmade soap today that smells like cloves.

A mere 8.5 shopping days left

Busy busy day today at work, but not too bad. Busy enough that the day flew by, which is a good thing. And no Christmas-ruiners.

I'm a bit weary this evening. I don't think the Jeanners slept very well last night so I'm guessing she is, too. She's in the shower right now. She went and volunteered at Hab. For Human. (her former employer) today with Alison, a former Habitat coworker who is now engaged and living somewhere in the farther-north Northeast. Boston, maybe?

Last night we watched the 90's David Lynch movie Lost Highway, and though it had a slow start we eventually got into it and it was ok.
I remember owning the soundtrack for that movie. I think I sold it in college so that I would have money to buy large bottles of gin. I'm glad that I no longer have to sell things when I want to drink.

I don't know what we'll be doing this evening. Maybe wrapping presents. Maybe watching another movie. Maybe just hanging out. I think we'll be staying home and laying low.

Whiz

In Chuck Berry's, "Run, Run, Rudolph," Rudolph is described as 'whizzing across the sky,' which I think is a funny image. For me, it conjures urine more than something moving quickly.

That being said, the days are whizzing by.

Last night at work was kind of fun, because at the end of the night, Cindy and Marlene were out on the floor helping to straighten up, and we were all yelling to each other from different aisles, and joking and talking about going home and drinking and there was just a general sense of comraderie that sometimes exists at the B&N and sometimes does not. I like it when it does.

My parents are putting up their Christmas tree today, which historically was the only time that we children ever heard my father cuss. Well, it was the only time when we could expect to hear my father cuss. There were , of course, odd hammer-to-thumb moments when he would let a throught-the-teeth goddamnit slip out, but putting up the tree day was always good for some verbal fireworks.

Bacon is frying in the pan.

Man or Machine?

Yesterday was perhaps the most productive day I've ever had at the B&N. I went through a lot of receiving, made a lot of money, and straightened up the department, all by myself. It was a busy f'ing day. Probably tonight will be a repeat.

Dan C. stopped in to the store last night. I hadn't talked to him in awhile, so it was good to catch up a little. He seems to like teaching very much.

Yesterday the Jeanners and I took the most wonderful nap!

Today before work maybe I'll try to do a little X-mas shopping. I also have to buy plastic-ware for several luncheon-type things coming up at work.

RETAIL NOTE: Whenever a person wearing a brightly colored, "festive" hat approaches me at work, I always assume they're going to be annoying. I am rarely disappointed.

13 shopping days left until Christmas!

Today kicked my ass around a bit. I just got home and am enjoying the first of what will probably turn into several gin and tonics. One of those days...

It actually wasn't too bad, just busy and far too long. I did have one nearly-Christmas-ruining customer, though, just as a I was leaving. Just an unhappy, unpleasant person.

Once again, I find myself thinking good thoughts for Elizabeth. She has been on my mind all day and I hope she is ok.

Also, I'm looking forward to my wife getting home because I fear that I'm going to see far too little of her over the next 13 days.

Monday morning meeting

Not much time to write, as I'm off to work in a few minutes. Work has gotten pretty darned busy. Here's the skinny:

1. Friday on my day off I wiped Jeannie's hard drive clean, reinstalled Windows, and then reinstalled just the basic stuff we need on it. Now it's running like a champ. Why didn't I do this sooner?

2. Saturday night after work we had folks over for dinner. It was a good time, with good wine and good conversation.

3. I'm sleepy!

Baby Bosco

Well, the day has finally arrived when my good ol' buddy C. Bosco told me that he and his ladyfriend Susan is gonna have them a baby. How 'bout that? We had a nice chat this evening, although I was saddened to hear that they won't be coming in to the 'Lou for X-mas.

One of the things we talked about was the strange phenomenon that I've noticed for awhile (maybe since starting blogging in earnest) where I don't want to answer anyone's e-mails or phone calls anymore. Why is that? Is it somehow because of the blog, or is it just a natural side effect of aging?

Speaking of aging, I have been accused by some of my younger supervisees at work of being an age-ist. Which is probably at least partially true. I've been feeling old lately, and I'm probably taking it out a little bit on those bastards who are still in their prime.


Tonight Jeannie and I are straightening up our apartment because we have people coming over for dinner on Saturday.

Also, tonight the new Chipotle down the street (opening on Saturday) was offering some sort of sneak-preview free burritos. The line was out the door and down the street. So I did not go.

Also, tonight Jeannie and I received our Christmas present to ourself, a new big ol' harddrive for our computer. So I'm backing up a bunch of her files and then we're gonna wipe her computer clean cause it's got too much crap on it. Then we're going to make it her lean, mean, AutoCAD-ing machine.

I'm off tomorrow! To the gym with me!

If I die of cancer, some possible causes to look into:

1. Hotdogs
2. Popcorn
3. Toxic, nasty dust from the B&N
4. Walkman usage
5. Dish soap residue left on dishes
6. Bacon and/or eggs
7. Gin and/or tonic

Grand Opening

The Chipotle down the street will be opening on Saturday, Dec. 9th. Unfortunately, we're having some folks over for dinner that night so I won't be able to christen the damned thing on opening night.

This morning I got up early for a meeting at work, then went to the gym, came home and slept, and soon it's back to work this evening. Saturday and Sunday were the first days where it felt like we were really getting ready for Christmas, i.e. it was busier than usual, but not too bad.

I was in bed last night by 8:30pm. Sad. I am old and tired.

Prairie Home Companion

Tonight Jeannie and I almost went X-mas shopping but we ran out of time because we both went to our respective gyms (which I want to try to do regularly throughout December because it keeps me feeling better and it also keeps me from getting fat little man-titties.), so we ended up watching Prairie Home Companion instead, during which I realized that Garrison Keillor reminds me of the picture I have in my head of the character James O. Incandenza (from Infinite Jest). Which reminds me, Patrick from work recently showed me an artice in Newsweek (Time?) about the 10th anniversary of Infinite Jest, and there was a picture of David Foster Wallace, and in the picture he looked like the spitting image of John C. Reilly, except with longer hair. And John C. Reilly was in Prairie Home Companion. Which brings us full-circle.

I give the movie a nice solid B.

We are not getting any of the snow that is schlumping across the Midwest, and dammit, I'm ready for some snow. It's hard to listen to Christmas music all day when it's 65 degrees outside.

It is almost time for G&T/Letterman and then time to make the sleepie.

to Drew: You should've seen me play Feste. I was freakin' hi-larious!

Not really.


also to Drew: just when I thought I would never see anything gayer than this...
...you go and post the picture of your new boots.

Update

The Mark Kozelek cd is good. The kind of songs I would write if I was any good at writing songs. Acoustic, open tuning, mopey voice and lyrics.

Here is the view from the kitchen this morning:


The dishes have been done and the kitchen is relatively clean.

Addiction to CD's Nuts.

Are you like me? Has it been bothering you for the last few days that when I wrote "inadvertantly and unknowingly" in the last post that I might have been redundant? It's been bugging me, but I've been too lazy to actually dig out a dictionary and check. If it's been bugging you, I'm sorry...

I have been buying cd's like a mofo this week. SInce I last wrote, I purchased a Duke Ellington CD for an absolutely awesome version of 'Auld Lang Syne' that it contains. Then, yesterday at work I saw that Mark Kozelek (from Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon) has a new live CD. So I had to buy that, too. I know, I know, I should be saving money for when Chipotle opens up down the street. Which should be soon, it looks like. Holy Jeez, what am I going to do?

Today I'm off work and I'm going to do some laundry and take our recycling to the dump.

If you were sitting next to me right now, you'd probably say, "Jeez, Dan, you stink." Because I haven't taken a shower yet today and I smell pretty bad.

Here's what it looked like out of our kitchen window when I got home from work last night: