Finally

Well, the Jeanners and I finally made it down to the beach today, and what a beautiful day it was. Sunny, clear, and about 82 degrees. I got a little sunburned (suprise, surprise). It's nice to spend a whole day at the beach and only have it cost you a half a tank of gas and $2.50 for the Bay Bridge.

We also finally got a chance to see AS YOU LIKE IT on Saturday night. It was ok. Nothing embarassingly bad, but nothing amazingly good, either. I laughed at some parts and didn't laugh at others. P. Kilpatrick as Hymen the Love God, however, has created a stupid character to rival his stupid character in IMAGINARY INVALID, which I think is impressive.

The Beej comes into town soon to see the shows. 'Twill be good to see the boy. Hopefully we'll get a chance to play a round of spades or two.

The Jeanners and I were talking on our way to the beach about how Schlueter should start up a blog when they move to Oregon (or before). How it would be so good and how everyone would be able to read it and keep in touch with how things are going...

Wouldn't that be awesome?!

Things have felt pretty good lately.

Sowing the Seeds of Love

The garden is growing!



Here's what's growing at the garden: tomatoes (of course), green beans, cucumbers, cilantro, potatoes, green onions, peppers, miniature watermelons, lettuce, beets, carrots, and hmmmmm, I think that's it.

The Jeanners and I both have the day off today, which hasn't happened in awhile, so we're looking forward to it. Although it's been getting damned hot in our apartment (we've been attempting to not use our window AC units, for financial and environmental reasons). We do break down and use the AC in our bedroom at night, though, because neither of us can sleep while being stuck to the bed.

So what the hell should we do today? We were thinking of hitting the beach but the forecast is calling for rain, so we thought it would be too long of a drive just to get down there and have it rain...

Work has been busy lately but relatively painless. Lots of people to train.

Well, I can't really think of anything else interesting. It's nice to be spending the day with my girlfriend. Here's a picture of her looking attractive in the garden...

Many Lives, Many Masters

Last night the Jeanners and I for a long walk to the Giant G near the Rotunda Theatre, and had some good talks. She's been reading a book about reincarnation, so she was asking my thoughts about the subject. I don't feel much connection to reincarnation, but I suppose it's a possibility. The Jeanners likes the idea. She likes the idea of having a second chance to get things right. Fair enough.

It's been busy at work, getting ready for this month's changeover and training a dude from another store. But it's been ok.

I am a bit bummed that I haven't had a chance to see either of the CSC summer shows yet--I've been working every Friday and Saturday night since we got back from the Lou--but this Saturday night I'm off so we should get a chance to see whatever show is playing. Thursday is my other day off this week, and I'd love to hit the beach but I think I shall have some chores around the house to take care of.

Just dropped $300 on new tires for my car. Sucky! This last month has turned out to be expensive...

The National

Well, I have squandered two days off, and now I'm faced with going back to work tomorrow. Oh well. Today I helped Korn and Kelly move into their new apartment, and then spent the rest of the afternoon playing around with the sampler and sequencer built into my keyboard.

I've been listening for 2 weeks or so to a band called The National. Their new CD, Boxer, is pretty damned good. Not life-changing or anything, but good. Good enough that it's been the only thing I've listened to for the last 2 weeks and I haven't gotten tired of it. I'm looking into getting their earlier CD, Alligator. Maybe I'll go sell some CD's at Record and Tape Traders tomorrow before work and pick it up.

Jeannie and I were going to walk up to Hopkins' campus tonight for an outdoor presentation of Young Frankenstein, but it's looking like rain so we might have to adjust our plans.

...And it Burns, Burns, Burns...

The Jeanners and I just finished watching Walk the Line. Damn you, Joaquin Phoenix, you've stolen yet another 2 hours from my life that I'll never get back.

Last night we went to a going away party for Elizabeth at work, who will be departing for Chicago in a month. I stayed up too late and had to get up this morning too early. But it was a good time. I enjoy seeing people from work outside of work.

It's felt like a busy week, but for the life of me, I can't really remember much of anything happening.

Hopefully I'll get some pictures of the festivities from Elizabeth to post. Wow, three prepositional phrases in a row. Is there a better way to structure that sentence?

Transcript

Jeannie: "Why is there glass on our couch?"


Dan: "I was having sex with a glass hooker and I broke her. With my high pitched screaming."

Sportcoat Guy

Last night I did something I never thought I'd do: I punched Jeannie.


In my own defense, I was asleep when it happened. And so was she. I was having a dream that I was at work, and Brian G. and I had grabbed sportcoat guy* and sportcoat guy pulled out a gun, and Brian G. grabbed sportcoat guy's arms and then I punched sportcoat guy in the face. And Jeannie and I both woke up pretty immediately after that, because I had actually punched her. Luckily, not in the face. But still.

I feel pretty bad about it, because I guess being punched awake is probably one of the worst ways to get woken up.



Today was a pretty good day. I was off and I did some laundry, and worked on a recording for my sister, and then Jeannie got home from work early and we ran errands and went to the gym. Then some burritos at home that tasted almost as good as Chipotle burritos. Side note: I haven't had any meat in 2 days. Not on purpose, though.

I've been listening to a lot of jazz lately. John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, and a guy named Hank Mobley who I hadn't really heard of before but who is a pretty good tenor sax guy from back in the day. I seem to go through jazz phases every now and again.

Maybe to the beach on my day off Thursday?



* Sportcoat Guy is a shoplifter at the B&N. In fact, he's the most notorious of the B&N shoplifters, at least in the music department. He's been stealing from us for years, and he usually gets several hundred dollars worth of stuff at a time. He always wears a sportcoat that (I think) has a big pocket sewn in the back in which there is a foil-lined bag that he puts the product in, so as not to set off the alarms on the way out. He is my number one enemy in the world and I hate him. Now that we have cameras I have attempted to show video of him to everyone that works at the B&N so they will know him when they see him. Oh, how I hate Sportcoat Guy.

Not Dead!!!

The Jeanners and I have been back from the Lou for a few days, and we've both got our noses back to our respective grindstones. It was a good trip. Saw lots of friends and family (missed E. Elz, though).


I got to meet my youngest niece. She was about 1.5 days old. She's my brother's new kid and her name is Elizabeth Anne. I like her because she is soft and fuzzy.


I also got to spend some time with my second-youngest neice, Layla. She's Jeannie's brother's kid. I like her because she smiles and laughs a lot, and she's also soft and her hair is getting crazy.


Abby is my third-youngest niece, and we got to visit with her on the day that her sister Elizabeth was being born. I like having fun with Abby and making funny faces and stuff like that. She might have a tough time not being the center of attention for awhile...



Another highlight of the trip was playing cards a few times with Jeannie's mom and grandma, both of whom are cool. And I drank some decent beer, throughout the trip. Which I enjoy.

So it was a good trip, not too hectic, but we also got to see a lot of people and have a lot of fun. We also had some adventures getting to and from the airport (I have now taken my 2nd and 3rd cab rides) [the first being a late-night cab ride to a party courtesy of R. Riley].

So yeah. I think I'm gonna start taking trips to the beach on my days off. Woo-Hoo!
Summa-time fun!

Ok, Katie's here for dinner tonight (we're having yummy Asian noodle salad with spring rolls and stuff) so I'm gonna go.

In the Garden

Me and my ladyfriend went to tend her garden this evening. She and her friend, Katie, have been renting a plot in the Community Garden over in Clifton Park for the summer. It's a pretty cool spot. A little bit of rural in the middle of the city.


Jeannie and Katie have a modest plot that looks like this:


I've been training some folks at work for the last few days. People that are going to be managers at different stores. It hasn't been too bad, because I wrote up a little bit of a training guide so that I could get through everything and not forget anything. It's kind of exhausting to train 2 people for 8 hours while attempting to do your job at the same time, and I'm tired tonight.

And I wanted to take a little space here to say RIP to Charles Nelson Reilly. Some of you may know that I'm a fan of the old game show Match Game, and if you're familiar with Match Game at all then you know about Charles Nelson Reilly. I don't really know all that much about CNR other than what I've seen on a corny game show from the 70's, but I really feel some sort of strange sort of admiration for him. Mainly, I think because he always seemed very smart and very comfortable in his own skin. So I probably shouldn't be too sad about the passing of someone I've only seen on TV, but I am.

Here's another picture of the garden, as it was getting dark:

Date Night.

It's been another busy week. Work, and then working on the set on the days off. It has given me quite the sunburn on the back of my neck. But it's just really red, it doesn't hurt.

Tonight me and the Jeanners got ourselves a little date planned. Actually, we just have a plan to go to finner, and we don't know where yet. But considering how our schedules have been lately, I'll take it. She should be getting home from yoga soon.

Looking forward to our impending trip to the Lou. We'll be staying a few nights with my parents, which is a new thing for us (not new for me, I did it for 18 years) but I think it'll be a good thing.

Hmmm. I've been wanting to work on music lately -- tweaking some of Sean's songs, working on some new stuff -- but have had neither the time nor the inspiration. Why do I feel so much busier than I used to be? I don't really think I am, but it sure feels that way...

Some highlights from work from this week include the joy of getting to throughout another mostly-naked homeless man from the bathroom (this guy was much nicer than the first mostly-naked homeless man I encountered, and I told him so) and getting to meet the sister of T. Griffin, a customer who has a slight mental disability who lavishes more praise on me than anyone I have ever met. He also will go from talking to you to talking to himself in the same sentence, with no pauses or changes of inflection, so it can be kind of confusing. An example sentence: "Dan, you're so nice maybe you're his favorite customer, Tom."

A quick call for help...

Lately, I have had the name "Lee K. Bottoms" in my head. Does anyone know where this name comes from? Something tells me that this name is somehow related to E. Elz. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

Build-a-Thon

Today the Jeanners and I were part of CSC's 'company build day,' where we try to get a bunch of people to come out and work on the set for the summer shows. And it actually went pretty well. We had a good turnout, got started at around 10am and worked until about 7:30. And got a lot done. So I'll probably build some more on my day off on Thursday, but then hopefully won't have to do much more after that.

I kind of got in trouble yesterday at work because of some negative feedback that was given about the way I trained somebody from a different store. I'm not too concerned, but perhaps I shall not slack as much as I like to. I shall now use a carefully dropped f-bomb to say "fuck it."

It felt good to work outside today. I felt very out of practice as far as all the carpentry/building stuff goes, but the weather was nice and the people that were there were all fairly handy so it made for an enjoyable day.

The season finale of LOST is on this Wednesday, and I have to miss it in order to train somebody at work. The VCR will be rollin'.

Countdown to Summer

This week has been all about enjoying the finer things of spring -- walks and gin and tonics. The Jeanners and I have been taking a nice walk most evenings when she/we get home from work, and then enjoying a tasty G&T apiece.

Other than that, not much to tell. Work has been pretty pointless, but mildly enjoyable. My days off have been pretty uneventful, and I'm getting ready to do some work on the set for the summer shows. We'll have a big build day this Sunday and then I might do some building on Thursday, depending on how things go this weekend.

This morning on my way to work, I was thinking about a bit of wisdom that used to come up in Schmor's acting classes: 'pursue what you resist.' I always thought it was a good piece of advice, something to keep you moving and growing. I guess the problem that I'm running into these days is that I'm resisting a lot of things, in a lot of different directions. I'm resisting staying here in Baltimore for another five years, working at the B&N job which is easy and comfortable but not challenging, and I'm also resisting picking up and starting over somewhere. And so on. Lots of things like that. So which way to go? What to pursue?

That's what I was thinking about when I drove into work this morning. I never quite fully woke up today. I think it's because I was awakened before my alarm went off by sunlight coming into our bedroom window.

I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me --Rockwell

Well, I wonder how Seanyboy's two opening gigs for Colin Hay went. Somebody left a comment on his Myspace site that they heard he sounded great, so that's a good sign.

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms and Moms-To-Be out there. I sure do miss my mommy and daddy today. I'll be glad to see them in a few weeks.

So since the cameras have been installed at work, I have been experiencing a strange phenomenon. Now that I am theoretically being watched for all of the 40 hours per week that I am at work, I have been having the sensation that I am being watched at other places, i.e. at home, in my car, etc. Pretty much everywhere I go, it always takes me a minute to remember that I'm not on camera and that I'm not being recorded. Similarly, because at work we have the capability to go back and watch stuff from last week, I forget that not everything that happens around me is being recorded, and I cannot go back and watch things at will. For example, I cannot go back and watch a recording of myself typing this blog, cause there's no cameras here. But after spending so much time at work, my mind sort of starts to forget that. It's weird. It's not something that I expected to happen. I wonder if this is going to get better or worse once I get used to the cameras being there?

Tonight as Jeannie and I made dinner (felafels) we listened to a mix she had made from our music library. It was damned good.

New guy at work started on Saturday. He did pretty well. We'll see how it goes...

Milestones

Today is Bono's 47th birthday. It's also my brother-in-law Tom's 44th birthday. It's also the 2nd birthday of this blog.

In the last 2 years, I've done 314 posts, which comes out to a post every 2.3248407 days. Which ain't a bad average, really.

LOST was, indeed, a pretty good episode, although it raised just as many questions as it answered...

A bust.

I've been looking forward to this day off for awhile now, and I must admit, it was a bit of a let down. It all started when the arm on my glasses broke as I was taking them off to get in the shower, so I spent a good part of my morning running around looking for a place to get them repaired. Then spent most of the afternoon doing nothing much, and then silly P. Kilpatrick forgot about our dinner date, and now I'm down to the last thing I was looking forward to, LOST, which had better be a good one.

On the good news front: Jeanners got the day off tomorrow so we can hang out. That's pretty sweet, and will turn a day of chores and errands into a day of fun.

At work yesterday, I was shown how to review video from the new cameras. It's pretty cool. It's all digital, and you can zoom in on stuff and it kinda makes you feel like you're working on Law and Order. Anyway, it should be pretty helpful in spotting the shoplifters. Maybe it will help me get some good sleep.

Dull Boy

Well, so much for my resolution to post more frequently and more interestingly. However, I have really been working my ass off for awhile. Right now I'm in the middle of working 13 days in a row. Usually I start to get a little cranky after 3 or 4 days in a row, but I think I'm doing ok. Although I still have 4 days left to go. Then 2 days off on Wednesday and Thursday. Wo--Hoo!

Already have plans for burgers with P. Kilpatrick at some point next week, so that should be fun as I haven't seen him in awhile and he's been busy with wedding plans and rehearsing HENRY V.

Let's see, what else? If the weather keeps getting nicer I'm gonna have to start considering making some runs to the beach on my days off. I like to go swimmin' with the dolphins.

Also can't wait for our trip to the Lou at the end of the month. It will be good to see the families, hopefully some friends, and do some relaxing and not thinking about the B&N. I think about the B&N way too much.

Oooh, I almost forgot. They installed cameras today at the B&N, so now I can catch some of those shoplifters I have regular recurring fucking nightmares about. Look out, Mr. Jerk! Unfortunately, that also means that Big Brother will have concrete evidence of my, shall we say 'somewhat relaxed' managerial ethic. Oh well.

Into the Mystic

Jeannie went to Robert E. Lee park on Sunday and took some pictures of the fort-thing that's there. It looks like this:




Pretty magical looking, huh?

I interviewed a new guy for work today. He showed promise, I'm guessing we'll end up offering him the job.

Not too much else going on except work. And it seems like everyone around us is either getting pregnant or having babies.

Little Bosco

Let me be one of the first to welcome tiny Henry Bosco into the world, the new son of my good buddy Chris. Henry arrived six weeks early, and caught his mommy and daddy off guard, as they happened to be in two different cities. So apparently daddy missed a bit of the delivery. Surprise! But I am happy to report that everyone is healthy and doing fine. All of this story, by the way, comes second hand through my mom, so none of it may actually be true. I'm still awaiting verification from Mr. Bosco himself.

Well, it turns out that my sleepless night worrying about the District Manager's visit on Tuesday was for naught, as the visit went fine. So I guess I'm doing ok at work.

Also heard a rumor that old manager FC Wasnock has turned in his 2 weeks' notice to the Noble. True?

Continuing to work on Seanyboy's CD. I'll be sending off a CD to him soon of relatively finished tracks, so he can have copies for his Colin Hay gig if he so chooses. It's been a good time, and I feel like I've learned a lot throughout the process.

Hmm. What else? Jeannie and I bought plane tickets for an end-of-May/Beginning of June trip to St. Louis to see the fams. Should be a good time. Also word that her brother might be stationed in Maryland for a month this summer, which could be fun and interesting. Looking forward to seeing how it all turns out...

Forgetful Jones

As I was driving home from work this evening, I realized that I was totally in the process of accidentally skipping a CSC production meeting. Oops. I hope I'm not missing anything too earth-shattering.

Tomorrow at work is our annual official store visit from the District Manager. Big deal. Everybody's in a hissy. Basically the DM comes in and digs around in your shit and makes sure everything is up to snuff.

Hmmm, what else?

The Jeanners and I had a pretty damned good day yesterday. It's easy to have a good day when you have Chipotle for dinner.

So Drew and Felicity are moving to San Fran. It seems like the West Coast is going to be the cool place to be, what with all the folks moving out there.

Beautiful Sunday

After doing some mixing this morning, the Jeanners and I took advantage of the fact that we both had the day off, and used a gorgeous afternoon to go for a walk in Robert E. Lee park, which is a large wooded area with lots of paths and whatnot. It gave me the chance to see the 'fort' that she and Katie had found in the park a few months ago, which is pretty cool. It's basically a huge teepee that someone has built out of a lot of driftwood and fallen trees. Seeing it made me want to go live in the woods.

Tonight we plan on eating Chipotle and watching ROME. ROME, by the way, is a really good show, one that both the J-Dog and myself enjoy. It's good!

I'm also gonna sew a button on my shorts and sew my sandals back together. Cause they're falling apart.

Grunt Work

Well, I spent most of the day working on mixing one of Seanyboy's songs, and got to a point where I was relatively satisfied with it, only to come back a few hours later and be unsatisfied with it again. Frustrating.

My knee has been feeling slightly better today, but still pretty bad. And it's been f@#$ing cold in our apartment all day because people keep turning the heat all the way down. Which I would normally be fine with except that it's f@#$ing cold in our apartment. Last night Jeannie and I went to bed in stocking caps.

Back to work tomorrow. Kind of looking forward to it. I've got a lot I want to get done.

LOST tonight! Oh yes! I don't think it's going to be a great episode, though...

I'm Back, Dammit!

I just spent the last few minutes reading some of my blog posts from back in the day and thinking to myself, "Damn, Chief, I used to be a funny bastard," when I realized that for awhile now I've been acting and feeling like an old, whiney, grumpy turd with nothing to say. And GAWDDammit, I'm tired of it.

I will preface all of this by saying that I have been feeling like an old, whiney, grumpy turd because:
A) I was sick.
B) I hurt my knee at inventory the other night and I've been hobbling around in pain.
C) I didn't sleep well last night because I was worrying about everything I could possibly worry about that was work-related.

And I haven't been writing in the Blog. Nothing interesting, anyway. But I'm going to start again. I'm going to rededicate myself to the task of keeping a record of what it's like to wear these pants and chomp with these teeth.

SO:

Today I was off work and slept late because I didn't sleep well last night. I worked on some mixing this morning and did some cleaning and gave myself a haircut and hobbled around in pain. That's about it, really. The Jeanners came home from work and we made some dinner and now she's sitting by me on the couch waiting to use the computer.

We found out the other day that the Schluetermetz' are going to be moving to Oregon next year, which makes us sad/happy, and also that hey're expecting another bambino/bambina. Which makes us only happy. So life will be changing in the near future, and I usually like it when life changes.

I've been hamesick recently. Once it gets past the 3 month mark since we've been home, I start to feel it.

That's it for tonight. I'm gonna ice my knee. Tomorrow I'm off again, probably do some more mixing and chores.

Excused Absence, pt. II

Sick, sick, sick.

For the last few days, I've been sicker than I've been since I was a little kid.

Sucks.

Tonight we've got a damned inventory at work that I really shouldn't miss, so I'm going to go, though my wife tells me I shouldn't.

(sigh)

Excused Absence

What a wonderful visit we had with Sean and Nicole. They arrived in Baltimore last Thursday night, and then we got together on Friday morning, and Sean and Cole and I headed to Pete's Grille for some breakfast while Jeannie finished working her half day. Then in the afternoon we walked downtown for a tour of the harbor area. Dinner at Rocky Run and then sitting around shooting the bull. Saturday I went to work while Jeannie ran errands and Sean and Cole headed to Washington for a quick drive-through tour. Then Saturday night we went and got some takeout for dinner, then several rousing games of Catch Phrase over beers.

Sunday we cooked up some breakfast burritos and went down to Fell's Point and walked around to some shops, then had an impromptu lunch at the Sip n' Bite. A fun little place. Then Nicole headed off to the airport, and Sean and I got down to business and started recording. We recorded all day (or almost all day) on Monday and Tuesday, vocals and guitar during the day and then electric overdubs at night. Wednesday we finished up recording Sean's vocals and guitars and then we packed him off to the airport and off he went. It was good to see my old buddy and his great girl. They are truly people who are happy with the life they've built for themselves, and I think they deserve to be happy because they've made lots of good decisions to get where they are. Anyway, it was good to see them.

So, for the last few days at work I've been playing a little catch-up, and in my free time I've been attempting to mix some of the stuff we recorded. I think it's gonna take some time and trial-and-error and hard work, but I think that the songs should end up sounding good. I hope so. It was fun recording them.

Tonight Jeannie and I are cooking up some stir fry, although I must admit that I'm shirking my duties to write this damned blog. Here's a picture of Spiff while he's playing 'Just Your Touch' :

Another week...

Been working a bunch, and not doing much of anything else. Although Jeannie and I did straighten up the place last night in preparation for Sean and Cole's visit. They should be arriving in Baltimore late tonight, staying at a hotel for the night, and then we'll hook up tomorrow morning.

I've been wondering if the Schluetermetz' know where they're going to move to...

I've also been attempting to get back in the habit of going to the gym. I've been a few times this week and last week, which I think is a good start. I'll be taking a break while Sean is in town, but then hope to fire things up in full gear for the summer.

I think Sean and I are going to do a lot of our recording in the bathroom. This seems kinda strange to me but also seems like the right idea.

Hmmm. Not much else. Just a collection of random thoughts. I still owe Rich an e- mail, but I haven't had time to do any research yet. Soon, though. Maybe tonight. Off to work and the gym...

All Possibilities

We've been back in Baltimore for a few days after a good Ohio trip. For me, a very laid back, relaxing trip of eating a lot of turkey, mashers, and green bean casserole and getting a dangerous amount of painful, stinky gas. For the Jeanners, a more hectic, stressful trip of driving and flying and driving and being stressed. But all in all, a good trip.

Been working a lot to make up for the days that I was gone, and also to pre-make-up for the days that I'll be out when Sean is in town. Derrick (old boss) came in to work yesterday, and it was good to see him. He seems to be doing well, although he said he misses the Noble.

Getting all excited about Sean and Cole's visit, which will be in full effect in a week. We're going to be packing a lot into a few days, I'm afraid, but we should have a damn good time. Right now I'm trying to decide where we should go for dinner while they're here. I'm thinking we'll probably eat a few times at home, and go out a few times. Burgers in Towson? The ol' standby Rocky Run? Seafood? Chinese? Sushi? Vegetarian at One World? The possibilies abound. I think we'll definitely hit Pete's Grille for breakfast at least once, and have bacon and schmeggs at home, too.

Hmmm. That's it for now. Off to work this afternoon, taking care of laundry, recycling, and errands at the moment...

"Save Your Anger for People."

These are some pictures that I'm stealing off of the Schluetermetz' computer. Pictures back from when they visited a few weeks ago.


Cool kids at the art museum.


Henry and the Jeanners and I make some breakfast.


A beautiful and complicated panoramic shot taken by Brad in which everyone looks bad.


I show off my bald head while the Jeanners and I cook some bacon n' schmeggs.


Ah, memories. Today's been a lazy day. The Jeanners headed to the airport early this morning, and I stayed in bed pretty late. Then got up just to lay around. At around 4, however, the menfolk decided to do some bowling, courtesy of a Bellefountaine coupon book that enabled us to bowl for free! Sweet stuff, indeed. Tonight, a spades tournament is planned that is looking like it's going to be downright bloody. I think that friendships could get shattered as a result of this spades game.

Greetings from Asbury Park, OH. Actually it's Bellefountaine.

Well, well. We are here in Ohio for the Fake Thanksgiving festivities. We got in last night at around 3am, after a relatively uneventful drive. Only bad part: we forgot the lasagna that Jeannie made. Left it in the freezer. Oh well, looks like the J-Dog and I will be having lasagna for dinner next week.

I've finished an 8-day stretch at work (which was pleasantly boring) and am now looking ahead to 4 days off. It was nice, though, having Elizabeth back in town to shoot the shit with and help the days go by a little faster.

The Jeanners is heading to Booneville via St. Louis tomorrow, she'll be back on Sunday morning. I will miss my baby.

Well, I've got a day full of relaxation, conversation, digestion, and game-playing to look forward to.

Mr. Jerk

Last night I had a dream that the thief who's been stealing stuff at the B&N lately came into the department and wanted to order a CD. "Oh boy," my dreamself thought to my dreamself, "Now I'll find out what his name is when he places his order." Unfortunately, he outsmarted me and gave me the obviously fake name, 'Mr. Jerk.' So now this new guy has his official Name in My Head. He will forevermore be known as Mr. Jerk.

When did I start going to the bathroom like an old man? When I was little I was always a little surprised by (and wary of) older men who made noise while peeing at a urinal in a public restroom, i.e. farting, loud sighs, etc. I now find myself doing both with increasing regularity. It's an alarming trend that I'm going to have to keep an eye on...

Lately I have found myself missing Nature. I have started feeling officially Urban. Maybe it's because I've been in contact with Sean more, so I've been thinking about Alaska and how different it must be there, how much they're totally surrounded by nature. And throughout my life until the time I left Missouri, I always had at least semi-regular contact with good ol' Mother Nature. But it's been awhile since I've been somewhere away from everyone else.

This is also all tied in with the fact that I've been feeling less Midwestern, too, but at the moment I'm not really missing feeling Midwestern. I am missing nature, though. Perhaps going to Ohio for a few days will help. For a good portion of the drive we'll be surrounded by a lot of dirt. (I mean outside of the car and not inside). Perhaps during some downtime in Ohio I shall have to take a drive out to one of the numerous surrounding rural areas and commune with the dirt for awhile.

I worked a long day at work today and thus I am sleepy. Jeannie's making some sort of crazy shit for dinner so we'll see how that goes. I love my girlfriend (and not just because she cooks good dinners).