The Year We Make Contact

So here we are on the final day of 2009. It's been a decent year, which makes me feel a little guilty considering it's been such a shitty year for so many people. Oh well.

The Jeanners is over at Katie's celebrating the New Years Eve, but I was too tired to be up to it. So I'm enjoying being here at the house and not working on anything, listening to music, eating pizza, drinking beer, and farting around on the internet.

We moved into the house yesterday, in a long move that was tiring but not terrible. We've moved into half the house while we work on the other half. The half we've moved into is probably about as big as our last apartment (which nobody but A-train ever saw), but it's kinda weird right now because we're using the future dining room as our bedroom. So there's a big window behind our bed.

For the first time in my life, I have a refrigerator that makes and dispenses ice. As an avid gin and tonic drinker, please let me say that I am very excited about this. I bring it up because I just heard the ice maker drop its first load. I'm definitely a cube man, but I'm sure I can get used to the weird wedge-things the ice maker makes. Those wedges make me feel like I'm 12 years old and it's summertime and I'm over at my neighbor's house drinking kool-aid out of tall skinny pastel-colored plastic cups.

If you ever want to hear a funny story, ask the J-Dog to tell you about the time her parents' ice maker flooded their kitchen while they were on vacation. Although it probably won't be that funny because I pretty much told a lot of the story in that last sentence.

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION: Work on my handwriting.

Hopefully 2010 will be the best year ever for everyone in the world.

Yesterday when we saw that all the plumbing fixtures were working I was about as happy as I've ever been.

I've been meaning to mention: if you're a Tom Waits fan, I would highly recommend picking up his latest live CD. I've been listening to it in my car non-stop for the last two weeks and it's pretty damned good. Plus, I was able to pick it up at Best Buy for $7.99.

Cool Ranch Christmas

Merry Christmas 2009, everybody.

I'm sitting on our couch, and it's cold in the apartment. I have my winter jammies on (long sleeve t-shirt, brown long underwear bottoms, brown stocking cap) and there's a choir on NPR singing Christmas carols. We have opened presents from Jeannie's folks, and we've had a tasty bacon and fake-sausage breakfast, and I finished off my cool ranch Doritos, which were my present from the J-Dog last night. Had a long, busy day at work yesterday, although it was not too busy, and I received some Guinness and Gin and tonic and limes as Christmas presents from my co-workers. They know what I like. That being said, today is exactly one month after the one-night-only reunion show of the Quintessential Pine Tree Brothers, where I went a little overboard with the celebratory libations, and I haven't had any booze since. Just wanted to see what a month with no drink would be like, would it be rough or would it be ok? Turns out it was ok.

Today we'll begin tiling the shower in the new bathroom. Perhaps all the little mistakes we've been making along the way will come to a head, but perhaps we'll find out that we're actually in better shape than we think and we're worrying for no reason. Will it be rough or will it be OK? Stay tuned. Can't wait for this bathroom to be done. The plumber comes back on Monday to install the toilet and sink.

I think this is the first Christmas ever that the Jeanners and I haven't been home. Feels a little strange but not too bad. We've missed other holidays and this just feels like another one of those. Still, Christmas is a time when we usually get to catch up with a lot of family and friends, and it sucks a bit to have to go a longer stretch without seeing everybody.

We've rented a moving truck for Wednesday to make the move to the new place. Yikes. Since we're still working on a rather large portion of the house, we're going to be sleeping in the dining room for awhile.

I guess that's it for now. Hope everyone has a happy and safe Christmas.

Snow Adventure

So on Saturday the area got dumped on by a bunch of snow, enough that work was closed (on what would have been the busiest day of the year, no less!) so the Jeanners and I had a snow adventure at the new house. It was a good time. Snow is good.

Katie is back in town and has come over a couple of times to help with the drywalling of the bathroom. It sure is nice that she's back in town.

I am no good at drywalling. I'll be glad when this portion of the program is over.

I'm off work today and I'll be walking over to the house to do some small framing projects, and I might try to get some of the snow off the lower portion of the roof so that there are no moisture problems.

Blogging about moisture problems is perhaps more boring than blogging about interest rates, and I shall make every attempt to not do it in the future.

Boogoo.

Doesn't the basement look scary?



Ugh. Slow progress. The remainder of the year is ticking away.

Today at work was the day that happens each year when I get really tired of seeing people. Work hasn't been too bad yet, though.

Today John Waters came into the store. But I wasn't much help. I wanted to tell him that I really loved the "no smoking" thing that he did, but I thought that it might be insulting to tell someone who has made many movies that the piece of work that you really like is a little fart of a joke that you saw on the internet.

A Good Name For a Dog or a Dragon

Sheesh! It's almost been a week since I wrote, but it feels like it was just yesterday. The house continues to eat up all free time, as it will for another few months, I'm sure. Progress report: old bathroom completely torn out, new bathroom walls framed up, bathroom subfloor torn out (we're going to attempt to go with hardwood in the bathroom...not sure if it will work), the plumber was there today starting to rough in the new pipes for the fixtures, we have bought a tub and toilet and sink (although we have to return the tub tonight because the finish is a little screwed up), and everything is torn out of the basement except for the crazy outdoor-as-indoor shower. We are eagerly awaiting getting stuff roughed in in the bathrrom so we can start tiling the shower wall and getting drywall up. We are tired of looking at a mostly-torn-apart bathroom.

Well shit. It's hard to write anything interesting when life is consumed by pretty much one thing. Hmmm. I went to court today in case I was needed to testify against a particular shoplifter. That's about it. Things are picking up slightly at work but the real rush hasn't started yet.

Alright. Gonna go poo and then put my laundry in the dryer.

Jeannie Said She's Gonna Poop in My Water

When did I become a busy person? I remember many times during the past few years when I had absolutely nothing to do. Those were good times. It seems like I haven't had any days like that in the last few months.

Here's what I want for Christmas: one day between now and the end of the year that transpires like the one described in this old blog post.

All that being said, the Jeanners and I are having a pretty good time working on this fucking house. I think it's gonna be really great when it's all done (estimated completion date: June 2047). Working has been especially fun because Jeannie is doing all the hard stuff and I just tag along to do the grunt work. Seriously, though, if you ever want to think good thoughts about the J-Dog, you should work on a house with her because it's really impressive to see her do all the planning and designing and building and everything. Cannot say enough good things about it. And then after working we come back to our shitty apartment and she opens the fucking windows in the bedroom, and it gets down to about 40 degrees during the night and we're bundled up in long underwear and stocking caps and blankets. It's absolutely bonkers crazy. Also, our current shower has 2 "slippery spots", which are two places on the floor of the shower that are permanently and perpetually slippery, like they're covered in shampoo but they're not. This is also bonkers crazy. All-in-all life feels just generally a little bit bonkers. In a good way. It feels good to be doing something. Feels good to be working towards something.

Wish I still smoked cause I think when the house is done it would be a nice place to have a cigarette.

But I Barely Even Know Her!

Everybody Knows I Like To Rollerskate

The one-night-only reunion show of the Quintessential Pine Tree Brothers is now a thing of memory, and I had a damned good time seeing everybody. It was very good, and very weird, and I missed the Jeanners, and I really appreciated staying with Uncle Rico at his sweet new place in beautiful Wildwood.

Also, I was able to surprise my family on Thanksgiving, which was nice, and my hangover had passed in time for me to enjoy a delicious turkey dinner. Isn't that what the holidays are all about?

Lino Pics

Lino (the guy who owned our house) was an old dude who did a lot of photography. He took a lot of pictures in, of, and around the house. We found some of them. I love the one of his desk.

True Story

Well, it's our anniversary and my wife is spending it at stupid work. This is the second anniversary in a row that she's refused to hang out with me. I'm beginning to think she's terrible.

Been working on the house lots this week. It's been slow going, but progress is being made. Lots of stuff torn out, an appointment made for the radiators to be modified on Thursday, and then the framing and remodeling can begin. Oh, and at some point in there all the shit in the basement has to be torn out.

Also at some point in there is a visit from my parents, my cousin's wedding in Scranton, PA, a super-secret trip to the Lou and one-night-only Quintessential Pine Tree Brothers reunion show (anybody wanna put me up on their floor for a few nights?), and Thanksgiving.

Today at work I forgot that it was raining a lot outside, and at one point I looked up from the counter and saw somebody dripping wet in front of me. I thought it was disgusting and wondered why there was a dripping wet person in front of me. Then I remembered it was raining outside. True story.

One more performance of Julius Caesar on Tuesday at a school in Virginia, and then I can never think about it again.

What the fuck is wrong with me? I've been listening to Christmas music like a motherfucker! True story!

Enoch Muthafuckin' Pratt

My damned wife is out of town for the week, and she took our goddamn wireless card with her, and I am unable to connect to the blessed Internet at home. Thus, I am sitting here at the Hamilton Branch of Baltimore City's Enoch Prattt free library. This is a damned shitty branch.

I have a splinter in my pointer.

The other night in my car I heard the song "I'm a Cuckoo" by Belle and Sebastian for the first time. I sat outside our place and listened until it was over. If I had Internet access I would download it. Unfortunately, the store where I work charges $17.99 for the CD, and even with my discount that's too expensive.

Julius Ceasar has closed outdoors, and on Tuesday we loaded up everything into a moving truck, took it to Goucher College, set everything up, focused lights, did the show, packed everything up, and took it all to McDonogh School, where we unloaded it, set everything up, and have been rehearsing for the past few nights with high school students added into the show. Performances this weekend. It's been a busy week, but everything has been unbelievably and surprisingly smooth.

Can't wait to get crackin' on the new house once Jeannie gets back in town. We need to get a dumpster outside so we can tear a bunch of moldy, nasty shit out of the basement. We also need to start tearing up the "bathroom." Today I took our stereo over and set it up because even shithole houses need stereos. The folks who cleaned out the house left behind a couple of pairs of speakers, one of which is pretty massive. I'm looking forward to trying them out.

The other night I had a dream that Jeannie left me for some other dude and I woke up in the middle of the night crying.

Last night I had a dream that some guy was arrested for drawing up plans for a device that would simultaneously kill himself and Michael Jackson. No lie!

Home is Where My Farts Is.

The Jeanners and I bought a house today. So now we own a house, which is strange and cool and scary.

The settlement was kinda fun, actually. We got to meet the folks who we were buying the house from, who are the brother and sister of the guy who used to live there. They were super nice and super cute. Then we spent the rest of the day pulling up the purple carpet in the living room. And lo and behold, much like the dream I had not too long ago, the floors are in pretty decent shape.

It was nice today to not think about Julius Caesar at all. This weekend I have to iron four 9' by 6' pieces of canvas, and then figure out what to do with them. Then next week is all Caesar, all the time. Luckily/unfortunately the J-Dog will be out of town next week, so while I am sad that we won't be hanging out, I am glad that Julius Caesar is not the reason that I won't be seeing her.

Our new house smells. Lino smoked cigars. Lino, by the way, is the name of the guy who used to live there. The J-Dog and I have, during the last few months, been referring to this place as "Lino's House." Also, it's kinda musty. Much work to be done!

20 seconds

On Friday night, Jeannie and I went to dinner to celebrate the fact that we got our driveway permit. We went to a Thai restaurant, and it was OK. We had a nice time. Then after dinner, we went to Trader Joe's to pick up a few things, and I had to go to the bathroom (the Trader Joe's next to my work is #1 on my list of Best Public Restroom in America, beating out a gas station in Bowling Green, MO that used to have the #1 spot), so I went in the bathroom and cut a fart that lasted 20 seconds. Seriously. Close your eyes and count to 20. It's a long time. And I thought that after cutting the 20 second fart that I was done, that any gastro-intestinal duress had been resolved, so I went out and met Jeannie in the vitamins aisle, but she told me to go back in there and give it the ol' college try. And I'm glad I listened to her, because it turns out that I needed to do things that probably wouldn't have waited for us to make the drive home.

This week's gonna be super busy and probably pretty stressful. Wish us luck.

Not so Fresh Air Feeling

Had an inventory at work tonight and it went very well. One of the easiest that I've worked. Then headed to the Kent House (formerly the Kent Lounge) with Nikki and Abbey and Johnny. A good time.

Jeannie wrote in her blog that the dude downstairs hasn't been smoking a lot, but at the moment, he is smoking and it stinks in our place. At least it does in the living room. Hopefully she's asleep there in the bedroom and not getting any of the stink that is coming up from down below.

Tomorrow I'm off work and planning a lot of set building. Then for he show tomorrow night, there is a bigwig from the Globe Theatre (in England!) who is coming to speak, so I'll probably be around for that. Then we're all hitting the pub afterwards.

Have I mentioned that I'll be glad when October/November is over? Cuz I will.

Glass Half Full

Today I got rid of my shift at work because I had signed up for a Stanislavski workshop and I had totally forgotten about it. The workshop was informative but ultimately pointless. But it was not unenjoyable and it was good to see the other folks there, but it just kinda felt like a waste of a day and I wish I hadn't had to use personal time at work in order to go to it.

I made myself some G&T's tonight that were just about 1/2 G. Yowza!

Last night I had a dream that we ripped out the carpet at the potential house and the hardwood floors underneath were gorgeous. I hope that this dream comes true.

We have had 3 days of non-stop rain. It's looking like the entire weekend of Julius Caesar is going to get rained out. Also, the rain is screwing with my set-building plans. Hopefully it will be a dry week and I will be able to get caught up. I am beginning to get stressed by the set building and the 3 lighting designs that I have to do. It's been far too long since I've had to do a real lighting design. Even when I was auditorium manager back at Truman, I always tried to pawn off the lighting designs onto an intern (thank you, Jeremy B) because I didn't feel very comfortable doing them. Oh well. I am looking forward to October and November being over. It's very strange, but at times like these when life gets stressful, I really love my job because, if necessary, I can devote exactly 0% of my brain to it, and it still gets done just as well as when I'm devoting 80% of my brain to it.

Slow Night

When the Jeanners got home from work this evening, she was stressed and didn't feel like cooking, so we went to our favorite little neighborhood restaurant, The Parkside, for dinner. I feel bad because the place always seems pretty empty when we go there. I don't know that it can survive much longer. On their calendar, they had advertised karaoke this evening, but when we got there it became fairly clear that no karaoke was going to take place. When we left (about 9:30), we were the only folks there. Sad. It's a cute place, and the people that run it are nice.

I had planned on spending the day working on the set, but it has been raining and cold all day so I was only able to buy lumber. I am also still procrastinating on this thing because I don't really feel like doing it. Hopefully I will not procrastinate too much.

Because of the rain, I spent the day around our apartment, and with all of our books and cd's and stuff packed away in storage, there really isn't that much to do. I made some eggs, took a nap, and farted around on the internet for a long time. Looking forward to the day when we can unpack the books and music equipment.

Gaytorade

Today I was off work, and I dropped some paperwork off down at the City Office of Homeownership, and then spent the afternoon building the indoor set for Julius Caesar. I've really been abusing my body throughout this whole process. My back is now in a pretty much constant state of pain. It's probably from lugging a bunch of damned platforms around by myself. Seriously, I'm going to be one of those 80-year-olds who is about 4 feet tall and walks around staring directly at the ground.

The Jeanners just got home!

Stan Getz is one smooth mofo.

Que Pasa, U.S.A.?

I finished off the last post with a bit of a cliffhanger, and I know you've all been dying to find out the outcome, and the answer is yes, I was getting sick.

Today is the first day in a long time that I've gotten off work and don't have anyplace that I have to be. It's pretty awesome. So the show opened this past weekend, and it's up and running, and now I don't have to go every night and make sure it's running ok. Now my job turns into set and lighting designer for when the show moves indoors in about a month. Which will be a different kind of stressful, but at least I won't have to be somewhere every night.

On Saturday I got to spend the day with the Jeanners (we did a lot of sleeping), and it was awesome. It's pretty amazing how much of the general suckiness of late can be directly attributed to not spending enough time with the Jeanners. The remaining 30% of the general suckiness can be attributed to:
1. trying to buy a house.
2. the persistent smell of cigarette smoke.
3. crappy water pressure.

Saturday night we went to see Ira "Schmira" Glass at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). He gave a talk and it was pretty cool.

When I was in eighth grade, my Spanish teacher used to make us watch this show called Que Pasa, U.S.A.?. Every now and again the theme song gets stuck in my head like a mothafu@#a. Enjoy.



I realize that I've been doing a shitty job of documenting this portion of the life of D-Bone and J-Dog. In order to remedy that, I shall post some pics of Where We Live Now.

Jesus Mary Joseph

It is a sunny, windy day today.

It is my day off, and it has been busy. It feels really good to have a day off, even though I've spent it doing a bunch of shit that I'd rather not be doing.

Life at the moment seems to be a wildly running horse, and the J-dog and I are blindfolded and hanging on tight and hoping it's going in the right direction. I guess we'll know at some point whether we're doing OK or whether we're getting trampled and shit on.

Ok, I've been having a persistent grammar and punctuation question: does the apostrophe get used when "it's" is being used as a contraction, or when it is being used as a possesive? Or neither? Or both? Please advise.

Highlight of the week: Jeanners made me mashers the other night.

Lowlight of the week: Jeanners seems to be having a tough time dealing with the City O' Baltimore ('Keep Moving') with regards to the driveway situation at the potential house.

Am I getting sick?

No Sitting Down or Urinating on the Horizon

U2 concert yesterday/last night. I got down to FedEx field at around noon and got in the general admission line. I was person number 296 in the line. So I'm a geek, but there are at least 295 people in the Pennsylvania/Maryland/DC/Virginia area geekier than me. Although some of the people in line were foreign, for whatever that's worth.

Anyway, got in line and talked a little bit with the folks in line behind me. Right behind me was a guy named Matt and his wife/girlfriend Kelly. Both very nice, moderate U2 fans. Then behind them was a group of 4 women from the DC area who are teachers. They were also very nice and they brought cards, so they invited me to play cards. So we played a couple hands of Bullshit (both of which I won), and a couple hands of rummy. Helped to pass the time tremendously. Also, before they knew my name, they called me "Baltimore," which I thought was pretty cool, especially when we were playing cards. So anyway, we spent the next five hours waiting in line. Luckily, once you get to know the people around you in line, that means you can get up and go use the porta-potties if you need to. So that part of the waiting wasn't too bad. Plus, I had water and Clif bars so I was set.

Once the doors opened at 5pm, then we all raced inside and got a good spot right down in front, right on the walkway that goes out into the audience around the stage. Unfortunately, after that point it was too crowded to sit down, and it was too difficult to leave the area without losing your spot, so you basically just had to stand for the rest of the night. So there was a good 6 hours of standing and not peeing, which was not pleasant. And I was cold because I decided when I got there to leave my jacket in the car.

The show was decent. Unfortunately not life-changing (I guess my days of seeing life-changing concerts are probably over) [except for the up-coming Quants reunion, of course] but not bad. It was pretty cool being up close, although the band did not use the walkways as much as I would've hoped. The sound wasn't that great, either. Nonetheless, they played a few songs that I've always wanted to hear live but never have, so that's pretty cool.

The highlight of the day was definitely meeting and hanging out with the other people in line, which was kind of surprising, but nice.

Oh, plus, I got a guitar pick when Edge's guitar technician was walking around the walkways testing the wireless system. That was pretty cool. I think my guitar playing is sounding better already.

Here are some pics from the show:

Progress?

Alright, so we've applied for a loan, set up inspections, and started work on finding out if we can add a driveway. The ball is rolling, and though it feels like it's rolling a little bit out of control, it's nice to be moving forward.

Still going to work during the day and rehearsals at night. So far this show has been a lot more work than I anticipated. I still have to come up for a set design for when it moves indoors. And then build the set. Not looking forward to that. I've got about a month.

U2 concert coming up on Tuesday. Strange, but I haven't really been thinking about it. I just want a day off so bad that I don't even think I'm going to stand outside all day in the hopes of meeting the band or getting a really great spot on the floor. Operation: Meet U2 2009 -- ABORTED.

The J-Dog has a cold. Terrible time to be sick cause she's so damn busy. I feel bad for her. I mean, I would feel bad for her if I ever saw her.

M. Flanagan, who directed the movie that I worked on shortly after I moved to Baltimore, lives in L.A. and is working on a new documentary. He sent me a message asking if I had any songs he could use, so I sent him some songs and he wants to use them. Pretty cool. Check out the trailer here.

Hmmm, that's about it for now. On tap for today: breakfast, call the lenders that we ended up not choosing, head over to the theatre's storage unit and take a drop over to one of the indoor theatres to see what it looks like, maybe investigate homeowner's insurance, and if the J-Dog is feeling better then head down to PKP's for some babysitting. Based on how the J-Dog was feeling last night, though, I doubt we will be doing that. Sorry, PKP and T-Pain.

Wu Wei

I'm much better at dealing with boredom than I am at dealing with busyness. Fuck this.

VAG

Yesterday I saw a bumper sticker that said, "I LOVE VAG." Classy.

Been busy as hell. Work, then rehearsals. Monday through Thursday. It's kept me busy, but it's been fun. A lovely time of year to be having outdoor rehearsals, and the place where rehearsals (and the show) are taking place is a lovely spot. There's lots of deer and other animals that hang out there, so I usually just sit in the car for a few minutes when I get there and watch them munching on grass.

The J-Dog is heading to the Lou this weekend for a quick trip to go to her cousin's wedding. Wish I could join her, but I'm going to be taking a lot of upcoming weekends off and I feel like it really doesn't make sense for me to head home right now.

Still waiting for the owners of the house to sign the f@#$'in contract.

Many errands to run today. Poop first.

Sept 12

One year since the death of DFW. Hmm. Still sad. Still hurts. Oh well.

Today Jeannie and I went on a home tour of Baltimore in the hopes that it will get us $3000.

It's been posted on Facebook, so it's official:



The Reunion Show of the Quintessential Pine Tree Brothers will be taking place on Wednesday, November 25, 2009 at the Skatium in St. Louis. 7pm-ish. Be there or regret it forever. Plus, you can roller skate while taking a stroll through the music of 1996.

A few weeks ago, Jeannie and BJ and Aimee and I decided that Baltimore's next slogan (current slogan: Baltimore - Get In On It!) should be Baltimore - Keep Moving.

If you haven't started watching Mad Men yet, you should. It's good.

Over there at Knese's Emergency Pudding, Jeffy has posted a picture of himself with an Amish beard. I have never seen him look uglier. Maybe it's the Amish beard/wife beater combo, but god damn.

Rewired

Aw, shit, beyotches. I is back on d'net.

Verizon sent a very nice technician to come look at our phone line today (luckily I had the day off work so I was able to be home during their 9am to 7pm window) and it took him like 2 minutes to go down into the basement and hook our apartment back up to the phone box. Problem solved.

Our new apartment is OK, but it smells like smoke a lot because the guy downstairs is always home and apparently doesn't do anything but sit and smoke. I would be angry, but I'm too jealous.

We are one step closer to buying the damned house. We have agreed on money shit and now we just have to go to this home tour thing on Saturday (in an attempt to get free money from the city of Baltimore) and then we will send them a phat contract to sign on Monday. And then we start scrambling in an attempt to get an inspection, a zoning variance, and a loan. Anyway, house talk is boring.

Been going to rehearsals for Julius Caesar. It's gonna be a pain in the butt to light this thing. Lots of extension cords put up and taken down every night. Bleagh.

Progress is also being made in the direction of a Quintessential Pine Tree Brothers reunion. No formal announcements have been made, but let me just say that if you are in the St. Louis area, keep the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving free. You won't regret it. Especially if you like the Quintessential Pine Tree Brothers.

For the last few days, I have had some Stevie Earl Jacobs lyrics in my head, so I'll close with those:

I got a bike lock
as thick as my cock

Hug Rainstorm

I miss the internet less than I did a few days ago. Not having a real phone still sucks, though.

Early September

September 1, 2009


We are currently living in a telephone-less, internet-less hell. Damn you, phone company. Apparently they won’t even be out to see what’s wrong with our line until a week from tomorrow. Damn you, phone company.

So anyway, we’re moved. Big shout out of thanks to the A-Train for coming to help us out on Saturday. All in all, it wasn’t too bad; we’d gotten all the big stuff moved and unloaded by 12:15pm, and after a tasty pizza lunch the Jeanners and I spent the rest of the day cleaning our old Charles Village place. Which took awhile. We’re not tidy people.

Then when we were all done we decided to go out for dinner in Hamilton (our new neighborhood) and we walked to the Hamilton Tavern, which isn’t too far from our new place. We had a damn tasty meal, and then got caught in a hug rainstorm on the walk home. Got tremendously soaked. The rest of the night was uneventful until we were awoken at 1am by two ladies arguing out in the street in front of our house. Damn you, phone company.


Sunday we went to a CSC gathering down at Ian’s house, which was pretty great. A perfect day to spend outside, lots of cute babies, and I didn’t get painfully and obnoxiously drunk.

Had a production meeting tonight for Julius Caesar. Work on the show seriously begins next week.

Still no word on the house.

Here are some interesting things:

1. At two separate times today, I seriously thought I might have shat in my pants. Once this morning as I was leaving for work, and once this afternoon while I was preparing to leave work. Both false alarms.

2. The other day I saw a guy with copious amounts of ear hair. Veritable tufts. It looked less like hair growing out of his ears and more like he had stuffed wads of hair into his ears for hearing protection.

3. This afternoon I drove to the Julius Caesar meeting on the highway, with the windows down, blaring first Phoenix’ “Rome,” and then Phillip Bailey/Phil Collins’ “Easy Lover.” Both were awesome in their own way.

My Necklaces

Jeez, moving sucks. But we're almost done. Just a few more days.

I feel like the next couple of months are going to lick balls. Too much going on. Moving, Julius Casar, attempted house purchase, weddings, possible Quants reunion. Too much.

Tonight as we were packing up more shit, I found some necklaces that I used to wear in college, including one that I made at the Kirksville make-your-own-jewelry store, and one that has a little amulet for "protection" that Jeannie gave to me. Dudes wearing necklaces is very underrated. Except by Italians, in which case it is overrated. That being said, I did feel a little stupid when I met one of our new neighbors and I was wearing my necklaces. Oh well.

I'm really ready for all of this shit to be over with. I'm also ready for our goddamned wireless internet connection to stop being such a pussy.

Sorry for my potty mouth this evening.

Moving to the Country, Gonna Eat a Normal Amount of Peaches. Perhaps Slightly Less Than a Normal Amount.

I had forgotten how much moving sucks. We haven't really acquired that much more shit since the last time we moved 3 years ago, but it sure seems like we have, for some reason. Maybe Jeannie did most of the packing last time. Anyway, packing sucks.

Last night the Jeanners and I were going through old photos and letters and stuff like that. Always the best part of packing. Especially reading letters from 10 years ago (almost to the day) that talked about looking back in ten years at the events that were happening at the time and how we would feel about them.

It's strange how much this place we're leaving feels like home. It's kinda the first place that we've made our own a little bit. Neither of us has entirely wrapped our mind around the idea of leaving and moving into some unknown little crappy apartment. Feels strange. Wish we were moving right into a house, I think it would be much easier.

On that note, no news on the house front. We're waiting for a reply on our offer of last week. (the dude selling the house has been in Costa Rica. Or as our agent writes in her e-mails, "Costa Rico.")

Today I get a key to the new apartment and will begin moving our packed up shit over there. We don't officially move (with a moving truck and all) until August 29. Everyone is invited to come help.

Well, fuck a duck, what a boring post. I wish the Beej was still in town. I wish it wasn't so damned humid. Not necessarily in that order.

I'm gonna brush my teeth and go for a run.

Not sure about the vocals, but I'm calling it done cause I just packed up all my music shit today.