Thursday, December 22, 2005

It's been another while since I posted, and I feel exactly as verbose as I did the last time I posted.

I'm leaving for the PacNW tomorrow. I haven't made many solid plans beyond Harem party on the 30th and NYE plans-ish, not to mention the obvious familial obligations from my arrival through Christmas day. So that leaves a lot of open space, and I need to talk to people, some of whom read this (Julie, are you in town?) and some of whom don't, probably. Trasportation is going to end up being an issue, so much so that I'm considering renting a damn car even though it will be ridiculously expensive for my under-25-years-old self. It's either that or lots of Greyhound tickets or friends who like driving.

I am using the coin-op laundry room in my building for the first time, and I was too dumb to know how to turn on the light or count my quarters at first, but now it's humming away, although I have no idea how long the cycle is.

The office holiday party last Friday was fun, and I was generously awarded for my year of good work with an awesome bonus, which totally made my weekend despite being sick as fuck. Then, in the office secret santa gift exchange, my gift was well-received and I was given a Netflix gift certificate, which is also a nice gift. So it's been all goodwill toward man up in here this week.

For my birthday, the Editor gave me a sweet Rasputin gift card, which he helped me spend last night. I got Lou Reed's Transformer which I can't believe I didn't own years ago, Sugar's Copper Blue, Tom Waits's Bone Machine, the Mountain Goats's Nothing for Juice, and Best in Show on DVD. I have a giant pile of new music to absorb.

I've got a box loaded with presents for my family and a 5:30 flight to catch tomorrow. I'm almost ready.

Friday, December 16, 2005

Sick.

Fuck. I have a cold. I feel like shit. I slept like shit. Tonight is the company holiday party, so I have to dress up and act sociable. In addition, I need to teach Kevin how to mend his clothes, apparently, because he has a little tear in his dress slacks and is all, "Whaaa? Needle and thread?"

My head hurts and ibuprofen is not helping enough. Also, I hate leaf blowers. (In my head, that last sentence was punctuated with several exclamation points and a trail of random characters a la cartoon swearing, but I don't have the energy to make it look like I actually *said* it that way.)

Now is the time on the blog when we leave for work.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

An explanation for my absence.

Many things have happened in the past week and a half that cover why I haven't been posting or, more recently, been online.

I have been packing. I have been working. I have been spending time with people. I have been celebrating birthdays (including my own, thanks!). I have been eating out. I have been moving. I have been organizing and arranging. I have been waiting for the cable to work. And now it does.

I will have more to say later. The new place is great. My commute is like nothing. I will have pictures Wednesday night, I hope.

That is all for now.

Sunday, December 04, 2005

There have been no updates.

God forbid. Stop hitting reload, guys, it's going to be okay.

I'm sitting here with a mug of rooibos tea, contemplating god knows what. I feel like a lot of what's been going on isn't anything I want to share on a public blog. Not that I won't eventually spill, but it needs to feel less immediate, have the context of time to frame it.

I'm having a fucking great weekend, though.

Yesterday the Editor came over for the afternoon and kicked my ass (okay, BARELY) at Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture Edition and ate all my salt and pepper Kettle Chips. That bastard. There was one question on the DVD that I missed because I am stupid, and had to go buy Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen as penance. I introduced him to the wonders of Katamari Damacy, which, while not a video game I personally play, because nothing is, is a game I find pretty amusing to watch.

Kevin came home in the evening after spending the day with his mom and we went out to our favorite Thai restaurant, Amarin Thai. The corn cake and tofu salad is so good, the soups are all tasty, and the curries and stir fries make me happy. They also have brown rice. Love!

Today we headed up to Berkeley. We had a whole day planned, and we did pretty much just what we planned. First up was the Thai temple breakfast, which is only held on Sundays and involves exchanging money for tokens, because the Buddhists can't take money or something. It was delicious and fun, the closest thing to food in Thailand that I've had here. Then we started heading toward Telegraph to hit up Amoeba, but I noticed we were near the Berkeley Bowl, which is a much-vaunted independent grocery store, and I just had to stop by to see what they had. It was pretty incredible. The produce section is insane. We made it out with just buying a couple canisters of loose tea (rooibos and organic genmai-cha).

Amoeba was a pocketbook-wrenching experience. In the used section, I found the aforementioned Born to Run; Iron & Wine's Our Endless Numbered Days; the Talking Heads' '77; and the Minus 5's In Rock, which lately disappeared from eMusic. Add these to my other recent acquisitions: Wilco's live double CD, Kicking Television, which Kevin brought me from Streetlight, and Devendra Banhart's Nino Rojo and Daniel Johnston's Songs of Pain from eMusic. I have a lot of listening in my near future.

We also visited a vintage store on Telegraph, where Kevin found some clothes, and Cody's Books, where I fed my magazine addiction. The last stop was way down the road in Oakland, Colucci Cafe, an Ethiopian restaurant with an impressive vegetarian menu. We ordered the shouro combo, which had mitten shouro (our favorite chickpea dish), gomen (collard greens), and akalit (potatoes, carrots, and string beans). It was some of the same items we normally get at Gojo, but they tasted completely different and were quite delicious.

Here is something that Kevin just said which I wanted to share: "I was getting excited by my newfound gayness." There is context which doesn't involve anyone coming out of the closet, but it is funnier out of context.