Dreams

Ah, I'm up early/late with a little bit of insomnia after a strange dream about driving around St. Louis with Bosco and others looking for a Mexican, Chinese, or sushi restaurant. Or a casino buffet. I was hoping for a Mexican place because I wanted a big burrito. Paging Dr. Freud...

Today the Jeanners and I are heading to the symphony with Ms. Ginsberg. I also hope to get some laundry done and maybe some grocery shopping tonoght.

Last night after I got home from work we were laying on the couch together listening to music and talking about our families. It was a good time. We also bought our plane tickets for Christmas. It's going to be a fast, expensive trip. Ouch!

Customers

For the past few days I have been talking with a man named Emil Gasparini who came in to the store to look for a cd that had some of the songs he used to sing (or hear) when he was in the air force during WWII, songs with titles like "There Are No Bombadiers in Hell." Well, it turns out that we can, in fact, order the songs he was looking for. It used to be a 4 LP set that they've put onto 2 cd's. Anyway, I'm writing about him because A) he has a great name. B) he is very pleasant and entertaining and nice, and tells me that I should listen to some of the songs, although some of them do contain "a few choice words." I assured him that I probably had already heard most of the words he was referring to. And C) he reminds me of my dad, although my dad was never in the air force and is too young to have been in WWII. Anyway, Emil Gasparini seems to be, in my limited view of him, a very classy, nice, and funny guy.

Also, today a regular customer and friend (to the extent that a clerk and customer can strike up a friendship at a B&N) named R. Ginsberg offered Jeannie and myself two of her extra tickets to the symphony this Sunday. She's a tiny, elderly, extremely intelligent classical music connoisseur who is very unlike anyone I have ever met. Since we have no plans, we accepted, and we're looking forward to it.

Finally, today I was helping a more-annoying-than-most drag queen.

Checking In

It's been a few days...

Right now I'm thinking good thoughts for Elizabeth and her Dad, hoping that everything turns out ok...

Many thanks to Rich for fixing up my electric guitar and bass, they're both sounding great and having them in good working condition has already made recording more enjoyable.

Work has been ok, we hired 2 new people on Friday and one of them quit after his 1st day, the other one seems like she'll be very good. So I'm blaming the one that quit on his own questionable emotional stability, rather than my meager skills as a person of authority. But I suppose that either thing could be the actual culprit.

Tonight Katie was over when I got home from work. I enjoyed sitting at the kitchen table with her and Jeannie and waxing philosophical on Ralph Machio, cat anuses, and ebola. With G&T's, of course.

Today I thought I would try and write a list of my favorite things for tonight's blog entry. I think, however, I shall just include one of my favorite things: a hot bath when it's chilly in the apartment and it makes me want to not get out of the bathtub.

My thoughts seem pretty scattered this evening, both in the head and in the blog.

last day

today jeannie and i will be leaving ohio. it's been such a fun trip, although today i feel kind of depressed. mostly because i don't feel like going back to work tomorrow. i have a feeling the next couple of weeks are going to be kind of stressful, and i just don't want to deal with it.

yesterday we went and saw jen's play, which was very very good, and i'm really glad i got to see it. Here's a pic:

Then last night we played a heartbreaking game of Phase 10, where I started off so well and then fell into a dark hole and it ended up that I accidentally handed the game to Jen, my arch-enemy when it comes to game playing. Aagh!

hand-cranked

We arrived in Ohio at around 3am last night, after a long-ish but uneventful drive. Rich had waited up for us, and we chatted for a short while before the Jeanners and I hit the hay. Today we've spent a lazy day around the house, watched a little bit of the British "The Office," and have just made some home-made ice cream to eat for dessert later after dinner.

Tonight I'm imagining an evening of games and maybe a few G&T's.

Yesterday at work I hired 2 people, and another woman that used to work at the B&N but left to have a baby is going to come back and work 1 night a week. So hopefully the people shortage in the department will soon be a thing of the past.

More later, maybe some pics. I love being in Ohio! (because my friends are here. I actually don't like the state of Ohio very much).

Warhola

For the last couple of nights, Jeannie and I have been catching parts of this PBS documentary on Andy Warhol. It's pretty interesting. Why do I find something like that inspiring? I don't know, but I do. It made me want to find out how much it would cost to rent a big warehouse space and then invite artists to come use it. Hmmmm.

Where in the HELL has Drew's blog gone?

I interviewed some folks at work today. Hopefully that means we'll have plenty of talented, well-trained workers in a couple of weeks.

Tomorrow after work, J and I leave for Ohio. It's about damned time. I am so looking forward to this.

Grammar Police!

I used the expression 'once again' twice in one sentence in my previous post. What a dumbass!

Today I got a lot of good stuff done at work. I feel much better after this day of work than I did after yesterday's day of work. Plus, I am off tomorrow. So I get to do laundry. And take our recycling to the dump. And watch my new ZOO TV LIVE FROM SYDNEY dvd.

****ADDED LATER****

And of course, in my previous post where I wrote "shout outs," I meant "shouts out."
Of course. What a dumbass!

All eyes on BJ

Well, my bad-Monday feelings are a little bit out of my system, although I'm not really looking forward to going to work today. But perhaps I will get to take care of a lot of things that have been problematic there lately. Schedule stuff, mostly.

It appears that if BJ agrees to come to Baltimore and perform in THE FRONT PAGE this February, then I will also be performing in THE FRONT PAGE this February. And Pat will also be performing in THE FRONT PAGE this February. So yes, there is a chance that that wacky threesome of comedic genius will once again be gracing the Baltimore theatre scene once again. All eyes are now on BJ to determine his next move...what's the word, Ponyboy? Are you in or out?

Shout outs to Amanda White and Karista, who have written me e-mails that I have, so far, failed to respond to. I'll get around to it, though.

Rainy days and Mondays...

Today was not rainy, but lordy was it ever Monday.

Today was a day that had its foot securely up my bottom, i.e. it kicked me in the arse.

Why have I felt so busy lately? Jesus!

I'm ready for several days off, hanging in Ohio, drinking a G&T and trash talkin' with the cool kids.

I'm going to go call the cool kids right now!

High Zero

Gena is in town.

Tonight she and Jeannie and I went to Baltimore's High Zero festival, which is a showcase of experimental improvisational music. I did not specifically enjoy it, but it was not specifically bad. We had a good time, either way.

It did bring back a vivid memory of Eric, Drew, California Mike, Blind Ryan, and Myself setting up recording equipment and various and sundry instruments on the stage at SLUH and recording some improvisational jams, perhaps the most well-known of which is 'Door is Ajar.' If you haven't heard it, ask me to play it for you sometime. This particular recording session took place just a few days before I left St. Louis for Baltimore, and it featured Drew on cello, Blind Ryan on my Korg synthesizer, California Mike on a tiny Casio keyboard, Eric on microcassette recorder and also recording engineer, and me playing on stuff when other people weren't. Also vocals by Ryan, Mike, and Drew. Ah, good times.

The other night, Patrick From Work, Elizabeth, FCW and Sarah came over and we drank a bunch of Guinness.

Bad Dreams

Ugh. I'm up too early, because I can't sleep. I had a "nightmare" about being at work and having a persistent, annoying customer who required help for at least 30 minutes after the store had closed. My nightmares are usually like that, never the usual horror-movie type scary stuff, but more like things that, to me, seem truly terrible but are not the stuff nightmares are usually made of. In other words, I do have dreams where I'm being shot or being chased but they never seem that bad, but the dreams where an annoying customer keeps me at work a half hour longer than necessary wakes me up in a cold, annoyed sweat.

Well, the dream put work stuff on my brain and now I can't get back to sleep.

And I am also hungry and have semi-intense gas.

Busy Day

Congrats to Jeremy and Emily, who now have a new baby boy, Ethan Robert, weighing in at a respectable 5 lbs. 3 oz.

Tonight I interviewed a new guy at the B&N. He was pretty nervous (so was I. I haven't done this much. Luckily Cindy sat in on the interview and chatted everybody up.), but I think he'll be fine. Very nice, polite, seems reliable.

Tomorrow I unexpectedly have the day off, because Elizabeth's Dad is having surgery on Friday so she asked me to switch our days off. She and Patrick and FCW are, I believe, coming over here tomorrow night to drink some Guinness and maybe play some games and fart and trash talk.

Jeannie's all done with her soup. We're going to drive our car in to the shop for an oil change and to get it checked out before we drive to Ohio and St. Louis. I'm getting sleepy.

Baby Mamma Drama

Jeremy at work's wife Emily could very well be at the hospital birthin' a baby right now. Isn't that exciting? It is exciting, because it will be fun to watch Jeremy be a daddy. But sad because once he's a daddy he won't work at the Noble anymore.

Jeannie and I met up with D. Calloway and his ladyfriend, Lisa, this evening after work. We met at One World Cafe and chatted and had some onion-y nachos. I think "nachos" should actually be spelled "natchos". Wouldn't it be better? I also think it would be better if "pizza" was pronounced with a short 'i' sound and a softer 'z' sound, so that it rhymed with fizz-ah.

I have been skimming through 'Infinite Jest' recently, because P. Kilpatrick might still be reading it, and our friend Chris is reading it, so my interest has been re-aroused. Jeez it's a good book. I'm making so many new connections in it, and I feel like I'm so close to a 'unified theory' regarding IJ, but there's still so many questions I have....

I'm sleepy.

Another blog day.

Today was a little sucky, just because it turned out different than I expected and I worked a longer day than I thought I would. But other than that, it wasn't too bad.

I miss Rich's blog.

I always enjoy it whenever Eric's sister Amy posts a new blog. She's such a good writer that even though I don't know her very well, I always enjoy reading what she's writing.

Because I can, and because this is a blog, and because you have no choice but to read it, I will now write about what I was doing 5 years ago, on Sept. 11, 2001:

I was living in St. Louis at the time, but happened to be visiting Baltimore, and I was actually scheduled to be flying back to St. Louis later in the afternoon. The flight was cancelled, of course. I was staying with BJ and Pat at their 12th floor apartment in the Marylander at St. Paul and University Parkway, just up the street from where I live now. The night before there had been a fire just down their hallway, and the whole building had been evacuated.
BJ had gone into work at CSC relatively early that morning, and I woke up to the sound of him leaving a message on the answering machine: (spoken in typical loud-nasal BJ voice) "Uh, hi guys, it's BJ. I was just calling to see if you guys were up because there's been some strange things happening, uh, terrorist activity, and I don't know if Dan's going to be able to get out of Baltimore. I wanted to see if you guys were up. Talk to you later." Or something to that effect. I remember him mentioning terrorist activity and thinking to myself, "What in the fuck is he talking about?" So I turned on the TV and saw what was happening and went in to Pat's room to wake him up, and I distinctly remember him laying naked on his bed and seeing his big ol' Pat-ass sticking up in the air. I don't remember if I woke him up or not.

The rest of the day was spent figuring out how to get me back to St. Louis relatively quickly, since all the flights were cancelled. A strange set of coincidences occured and it ended up that BJ had to drive to Texas to replace an actor that was on tour, so it was decided that he would leave for Texas that afternoon, stop in St. Louis to drop me off and stay at my apartment for a few hours of sleep, and then continue on to Texas the next day. So BJ and I left Baltimore at around 2 in the afternoon, and it took a hell of a long time to get out of the city, and we drove halfway across the country in Heidi and Ian's Pathfinder, listening mostly to NPR when we got a good signal (I remember a news story about members of Congress standing outside the Capital singing, 'God Bless America' or something like that and thinking that that was a strange thing to do), and pulled into St. Louis at around 5 in the morning. It was a very surreal day.




Right now I'm waiting for Jeannie to get home so we can eats us some dinner. I just had 2 pickles, one baby sweet and one bread-and-butter. I would like to have a beer tonight but don't know if I should. The other day on my day off I got out my recording equipment and did some recording that I was initially excited about but then it all got too convoluted and muddy and I erased it all. Elizabeth called out from work today.

A Pleasant Surprise

Tonight Jeannie and I decided to go out for dinner, so we went out walking, and the first couple of places that we went by were closed, and we were walking back to Rocky Run when we ran into our friend Katie and her sister Alice, who were also out looking for someplace to eat. So we decided to have dinner together and it was a good time.

One of my favorite things about Charles Village so far has been running into people while we're out on walks. It's such a nice thing to unexpectedly have dinner with friends...

Work is boring!

Crystal Ball

Another boring work week is upon me. Not much to look forward to until Friday, when I have the day off and our friend Gena comes into town for her visit.

This week the plan is to interview some folks for the B&N. Hopefully I'll find some good people, because a girl that was supposed to be transferring in to our store is no longer transferring in, and I've got people leaving in the next couple of weeks that I need to replace...such are the troubles of the lowly music manager.

Is that how 'lowly' is spelled? It looks funny.

Jeez, I can't wait to go to Ohio. It's looking like we'll be leaving either the night of Friday the 22nd or the morning of the 23rd. Woo-Hoo! A long drive with my Jeannie with friends at the end! Is there a better thing on Earth? I think not...

Good News!

Tonight I discovered that 'The Schnapps Shop' (the local liquor store), has Murphy's Stout, my beer of choice. Although I'm drinking one now and it's not as flavorful as I remember it...perhaps because I was too lazy to pour it into a glass and am just drinking it from the can, Missouri style...

On the way home from the store I saw someone driving a horse-drawn wagon-thingie down St. Paul.

Jeannie's off at a meeting with someone for whom she is drawing up kitchen remodeling plans, so I have the house all to myself. It's kind of warm in here...

Tomorrow I have the day off and the only thing on the agenda is laundry. Perhaps I'll finally dig out the old keyboard and work on some music. I feel kind of like working on some beats. Or, I could waste the day playing Civ III, which I have not done in a long time. We'll see tomorrow, I guess.

Here's a big shout out to A-Train Aimee, who is now an employee of the B&N in Pikesville, MD. She's the last of the 37th Street roommates to work for the Noble, and that includes Jeannie (the "unofficial" [i.e. non-rent-paying] roommate).

Of Coursey!

After a relatively uneventful and unremarkable day, I met Patrick From Work at Rocky Run and had a 1/2 price burger (not as good as the Rec Room, but it was ok because the Krabby Patty [burger with crab meat on top] was one of the 1/2 price ones) and some beers. We discussed jobs and whether one should try to have a "meaningful job" or just a job that pays the bills, and I offered my theory that one should not try to get a job doing the #1 thing they love most in the world because it will end up killing the love. I think that one should try to get a job doing something that is near the top of the list but not at the top. Patrick disagreed. And so the discussion went. It was a good time, though, and one that we should repeat in the future.

Mid-Week.

Jeannie woke me up this morning, worried that she parked the car on the wrong side of the street last night and that it had been towed this morning. Turns, out she just forgot where she parked, which is nice because it costs like $200 to get your car bach when they tow it.

My back has been bothering me the last few days, after improperly moving some boxes around at work last Thursday.

The other night we headed over to Katie's house for the first meeting of the Dinner Club, a rotating party where, like once a month, we'll have dinner over at somebody's house. I volunteered to host hotdog night.

Also, we found out that our friend Gena will be coming out for a visit in 1.5 weeks, which is nice because we've wanted to have visitors lately. We're also looking forward to our upcoming trip to Ohio later in September, where we'll get to hang out with the cool kids and see a production of Schlueter's play. Pretty exciting stuff, indeed.

Little Miss Sunshine

Tonight Jeannie and I walked down to the Charles Theater and saw LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE. It was ok. I did get to watch a little kid walk around in shorts and cowboy boots, which is always pretty awesome.

Today I worked on writing reviews for folks at work, which was not fun and required lots of procrastination breaks (phonecall to parents, haircut and beard trim, etc.) but is now, for the most part, finished, for better or worse.

I also read through the latest ROLLING STONE that featured an interview with Bob Dylan, and I swear, every time I read an interview with him, it feels like he kind of talks in code or something that I don't understand at all. I like the guy, I respect and enjoy his work, I think he's one of the greatest, but I sure wouldn't want to hang out with him for longer than a few minutes. At least that's the impression that I always get. Anyway, we've been listening to his cd at work, and although it's not the greatest atmosphere in which to listen to a cd, my initial report is that the cd sounds a little tame, maybe a little boring, but good. Haven't had a chance to really hear any of the lyrics yet, which I suppose are what put the asses in the seats anyway.

Jeannie has a paint can full of plant food scraps out on our back roof, that she takes over to her friend Katie's compost pile every now and again, and over the last few days of rain it filled up with water and then the lid fell off of it. So this evening Jeannie went out and dumped out the rotted-food-scrappy water onto the roof and I swear it smells like a professional basketball team all went out and had industrial-strength diarrhea just outside our kitchen window.

In Vino Veritas

Tonight Jeannie and I headed over to Chris and Elizabeth's, friends of a friend (our friend Katie), for Chris' birthday dinner. I had just the right amount of red wine and am now feeling comfortable. Chris and Elizabeth are interesting people; smart, artistic, funny. It was a good time, and a nice way to relax into my day off tomorrow.

Tomorrow I get to hopefully do not much of anything for awhile, maybe try to catch the THIS AMERICAN LIFE that I missed today due to work, and then I have to write reviews for the music sellers at work. Yuck. I have to write what should be normal, simple evaluations of people, except that I have to do it in company-speak. I hate company-speak, and I hate jumping through hoops.

I have decided that my favorite verse of THE STEINMETZ FAMILY RHYMIN' is Jen's verse. It sounds to me like it was written by Rich, and I like the lyrics, but I also like her voice, and I like the vocal production as well. For those who haven't heard it, I will now transcribe the beginning of the verse, the part that gets stuck in my head:

One, two, crack your knuckles, here we go.
I'm the lyrical miracle with the God-given flow.
Oh damn! It's Jenny Jam! And I'm comin' in quatro,
Have you poppin' and lockin' like you're Mr. Roboto.

Alert the Media, pt. II

So yesterday I was at work, and I got a personal phone call, and I figured it was Jeannie or somebody from our home office in New York that I was expecting a phone call from, but it turns out that it was a reporter from the Baltimore Sun who was writing a story about Charles Village and had stumbled upon my blog while researching on the internet, and he asked if he could interview me about my thoughts on Charles Village so far. So I told him I would call him when I got home, which I did, but couldn't get ahold of him. So maybe I'll get interviewed for the paper.

Meta-blogging: blogging about people reading your blog.

Our roof has started to leak a little bit. Tonight Jeannie and I gave Patrick From Work a ride to the Apple store to return his free defective printer. Then we played around with our camera until I got annoyed at her for sticking her foot in my face and taking pictures of it. Then she got annoyed at me for getting annoyed. Then we made up. Now we're sitting on the couch. I'll soon be heading off to bed, to rest myself for another most-likely-uneventful day at work.

I bought Coleman Hawkins' The Hawk Relaxes album today. It's one of those great late-night tenor saxophone jazz albums that it's just good to have.

The Figgs

Just finished a couple of long days at work, days that didn't leave much time for anything else. Oh well. I'm tired.

The other night, Jeannie was having trouble sleeping, so we were joking around for a little while in bed, and we started coming up with names for our future children. For some reason, we decided that our kids' last name would be Figg. If the kid was a girl, she would be named Blammy Newton Figg. If the kid was a boy, he would be named Jammy Juice Figg. Jesus, we were cracking ourselves up coming up with those names. It was a good time.

Oh SNAP!

Today I almost broke my damned toes by stepping bare-footed onto a mousetrap. A very Tom-and-Jerry moment. But luckily I stepped on the trap in such a way that it did no damage.

Jeannie and I had a nice, relaxin' day of doing nothing, and then rotting our brains in front of the TV, watching the mice scurry across our living room. The moral: if you sleep over at our apartment, take the futon rather than the air mattress.

Banana Hammock

Today seemed like a pretty good day. We hit the market, and listened to THIS AMERICAN LIFE (it wasn't great), then I headed to work. I was training a new kid, Sam, and he did well. I was pleased with his progress. It is always nice when new people actually make themselves useful early on.

Right now Greg Brown is telling his CANNED GOODS story on the cd player. Jeannie's reading. She just started singing a silly song to nobody in particular. To me, I guess.

The other day I told her that after I die I want her to put together a Broadway show with all of the songs I sing to her. I wanted her to do this because I had just come up with a little ditty that day that went:

Nobody likes me,
Everyone hates me,
Everyone thinks
I'm an ass-hole.

One of my other favorite songs is:

Come take a shower with me-e-e.
And my banana hammock!
My banana hammock!

I like that one because it makes no sense and it includes the phrase "banana hammock," one of my favorite expressions.

Presto-Change-o

The Great B&N Music Dept. Rearranging of '06 was a rousing success. Now we just have to catch up on the other work that has fallen behind during the last few days as a result...

Today, the Jeanners and I are gonna hit the farmers market, then listen to THIS AMERICAN LIFE, which has become our Saturday routine. Then it's off to work for me.

Now to make brown!

The Pooch

For the last couple of days, I have had the expression, "screwed the pooch" stuck in my head. As in, "Boy, Rich, you really screwed the pooch when you knocked over that jar of pickles on the new carpet." Or, "Pat totally screwed the pooch when he cast BJ as Petruchio. The show really suffered as a result!" I don't know where this expression comes from (historically or how it got in my head) as I haven't heard it used for quite some time.

Last night I estimated that around 25% of the food in our refridgerator is pickle products.

Lots of rearranging going on at work. Making more room for DVD's and moving everything around. Hopefully we should have it done in the next day or two.

Dear Diary...

It's been a couple of days. Relatively uneventful, here's what's been going on:

1. Ian asked if I could design a set for 'Love's Labour's Lost.' I agreed, and I'm kind of looking forward to it. It'll be nice to do something mildly creative again, as the B&N has been keeping me in boring manager mode for quite awile. I read the play today, and the whole thing takes place in one location! So it shouldn't be too time-consuming.

2. Jeannie has kept a journal since se was like 13 or 14, and last night she was reading through some of her earlier journals, including the one from when she was 17-18, when we met. So I made an unexceptional spaghetti dinner and we ate out on the roof and she read me some of the highlights from when we met, including our first kiss and other firsts. All the drama and excitement, the highs and lows of being young and falling slowly in love. Who would've guessed that one day she'd be reading that journal to me, now her husband, on our roof in Baltimore. Not me. And I don't miss being that young and confused, either.

3. Work is getting mildly stressful again, as I start thinking about the upcoming holidays, and Elizabeth and Jeremy leaving, and schedule juggling and all that nonsense. Luckily, I am well aware that it's all just a music department in a bookstore, and it ain't really that important. I'm not going to invest too much of myself into this job anymore. I'm going to do a good job and not worry about it...

4. Had a CSC meeting tonight at Lesley and Scott's new home, which is large and still empty. I like empty houses, and theirs is very beautiful. The meeting was relatively uneventful but fun, one of those small-group social meetings that I enjoy, with wine and beer and where ideas are thrown around but not too much gets actually decided. But good ideas come up, and we all get reminded that we enjoy working with one another, and I think it renews people's sense of purpose a little bit. I think it renews mine, anyway. It's a very interesting mix of people, diverse talents and interests, and I think the diversity is what has kept us afloat this long.

5. I proposed to Jeannie that if/when we have a dog in the future, we should name it Jean Rambeau. I firmly believe that pets should have both a first and last name, and this would be an homage to American action hero John Rambo. My proposal was rejected.

I guess that's about it for now. Back to work tomorrow, not really looking forward to it.

The Boob Tube

Tonight after work, Jeannie and I watched FIRST BLOOD (Rambo pt. 1) on TV. I enjoyed it, but Jeannie mocked it the entire time, despite the fact that early on she said she wasn't going to watch it and was just going to go to bed. Yet she stayed and watched it, seemingly just to mock it and ruin it for me. It's worth watching the whole 2 hours of the movie just to hear the song at the end, which has got to be the terriblest song of all time. So very very bad.

Then after the movie, we were flipping channels and caught the tail end of K-Fed's performance on the Teen Choice Awards.

What a night!

To-Do List Blog

Things I scratched off my to-do list before going to work today:

1. Sit around in my undies.
2. Fry some bacon and eggs.
3. Watch Mr. Rogers.