Notes on a Quest....

So, did I mention that I put Plan B into full effect?

Awesome...one hour spent writing a FUCKING LONG POST, and one accidental flick of the finger while I sneeze closes the whole window.  

I'm PISSED.

So I'm in Seattle now.  And I live with a stripper who just detoxed from methadone and has two kids with two baby daddies.  I met her in grad school and she took me in here after I overstayed my welcome in Boston.

Did I miss anything?

Nah, probably not.  I'm squeaking by (and squeaking doesn't begin to describe it) on freelance web gigs from craigslist.  I'm so tired of the whole struggling artist thing.

My stripper friend earns about $500 a night.  Too bad I'm not better looking.

Viewer discretion advised...

Here are two pics of my black eye.  Let this be a lesson.  Don't slip on the ice folks!    In retrospect, it would have been funnier if I had been drunk.  Too bad I wasn't.  Of all the times not to be....

Gravity's Rainbow....

So I type this with my left hand in a splint and my left eye swollen shut and COMPLETELY BLACK with tinges of red and yellow on the outside.  It's like an ugly rainbow. It's really flattering. Now, I'm getting those kind of looks on the street where others instantly assume I have one of THOSE boyfriends.  Amazingly, I received my concussion above my left temple.  I have no idea how the swelling and discoloration spread to my eye.   

It made for a great story at a program party last night and garnered me much sympathy.  Plus, I had a fun story to tell.  And I still have loads of Vicodin left to help me with the latest 400 pg novel I'm reading which is due Mon. 

And so...

This post goes to a wonderful lifelong friend and reader of this blog who has tried to call me a few times.  Thanks for your wonderful message.  It absolutely meant the world to me.  I will call back soon as I'd like to call when not rushed, etc..  And to another reader of this blog who wrote me at least five pages of handwritten correspondence recently.  From Alaska no less.  Thank you!  You are amazing!  I will reply in kind soon....  But it was wonderful to receive something handwritten for once!!! 

I have been working some intense 11-12 hour days.  Billing for every hour.  Yes, indeed, sucking Big Media dry.  Still, it has its toll.  After work tonight though, I went over to Juan's and he colored and cut my hair.  He's been depressed lately and craved the company.  I craved it too.  Somehow we have stumbled ino this friendship and have learned to depend on one another.  My hair looks fantastic too, which is good since I have a date this weekend.

Yes.  A date.  With a 40 yr old software engineer/poet who is also getting an MFA at a certain univ. in NYC. P. and I are off to Northampton for the weekend and I hope it works out.  But you know how it is....it may very well not.  Still, some movement is happening.  And to the two aforementioned readers who reached out to me after my post on lonliness...well, thanks!  As well as to those who weighed in with their sympathies/comments.  But I feel good today.  A new haircut, a date for the weekend and a big clothes shopping day on Friday. 

And so, what could go wrong???

Grenouilles....err...frogs I mean

I don't usually do this, but I also put this post on my Couchsurfer blog.  Why?  Because Couchsurfer is a public blog and I'm experimenting with "upping" my readership with weird ass searches.  Such as frogs.  But more than likely I'll feel weird if more than 15 people start reading the blog and I'll just lock it all down again.  Oh well.  Here's my frog post.

So yes, turns out France has an actual frog museum.  And here I thought everyone just left the kitsch up to Americans.  Actually, truth be told, this crosses the line from kitsch to something much more disturbing. 

Ah well.

Today was a nice, humid 95 degrees in New York.  Now that I finally have a real place to live, I slept most of the weekend and watched crappy shows on cable.  I only ventured out at dusk.  Today I theater hopped over agt Lincoln Center watching two movies in a row.  Ant Bully and that new Superman movie.  Man, according to the Superman film, Lois Lane lives three blocks down from me on Riverside Dr..  And her boyfriend/whatever has a seaplane teathered to a dock on the Hudson.  Uh huh.  Yeah, that's definitely something one sees on Riverside Drive.

Pics of the Swedes and other things!

These are the Swedes.  Note the "SuperFro" shirt.  He wore this while strolling all around Harlem.  Yup.  Anyway, in the end, I didn't hate them or anything.  Actually, I just found them weird, amusing and occasionally in the way. In fact, they made for some good stories.  They go my imaginative life going again.  Perhaps I should thank them.

I just think they were remarkably naive and Tony, the guy, just wants so BADLY to be a hipster.  It's unfortunate really.  Ironic tshirts can only get one so far in life..... Context!  Always gotta remember context.  Oh well.

Here we have a photo of the Swedes, Juan (with the recently dyed gray hair and the deer in the headlights look), and Mark.  Mark came to stay with his boyfriend for a "weekend".  That was over three weeks ago.  He also never cooks, cleans, or contributes in any way whatsoever to anything.  He was really happy to hear I was cooking fajitas on this particular night, however.  Note the look in his eyes.  I should put a little thought bubble over his head that basically says, "How much longer can I get away with this free rent thing before they all catch on?"  OR, "I'm completely using you all and what are YOU gonna do about it?"

Juan's problem.  Juan needs to start putting his foot down too.  Anyway, KJ and his boyfriend haven't been seen in the last two days.  Oddly, coincinding with the rent being due.  Did I mention KJ is a NEW roommate?  Juan's life seems to be a revolving door of chaos.

In the meantime, I saw a place today one subway stop from here and LOVED it.  I also got on really well with my potential future roommate.  She said I can move in Aug 1st if I want.  For $930 a month I get not one room....but TWO.  This is amazing. One room can be a guest room/writer's studio and the other room (which is huge) would be my bedroom. 

The building faces Riverside Park at a great location.  right where all the bike trails, swimming pools, and tennis courts are.   It's also one block from the subway.  That's also a great feature.  The woman who lives there grew up in the building, is open minded in every way, loves to read, knows poets all over Harlem and folks associated with the Nuyorican poets cafe and tends to a large organic garden in Riveside Park her parents started many years ago.  Apprently I would be welcome to plant there as well if I wish.  Well, it being halfway through summer, that may not happen, but I can help tend to it.  She also has an extra bike for me to exploring all the bike paths in the park.

Well, it sounds just wonderful.  Of course, I told Juan this on the very day it looks like KJ might be not paying him the rent.  And Juan said, "well, if I can't get the rent from KJ, would you still want to move back into your old room."  Wow.  What weird timing.  Let's hope KJ coughs up the rent so I don't feel torn.  I do owe Juan big time, but I'm excited about this new place.  I told him let's give it a week.  At th end of which I would commit to this woman's place.  Anyway, here are the pics of the two rooms and her living room.  It also comes with an elevator, dishwasher and washer/dryer in the apt.  Wow.

This is the smaller room.  it would be turned into a guest room/writing studio.  It's about 11ft-10in x 7ft-4 in.

This would be my sleeping room.  I can keep what furniture I want and she'll get rid of the rest.  It's about 21ft x 10 ft, (fully carpeted) with a large closet.

Both rooms are wired for cable TV and air conditioned.

Many of the apartments in Harlem are large and sprawling.  This one is no exception.  The living room is large with beautiful hardwood floors.  This pic only captures a small portion of it.

Anyway, that's it.  What do you all think?

Gotta password protect for a bit..

Juan accidentally sent my blog address to the wrong folks (my fault really, it was a signature in a forwarded email).

I'll be password protecting for a bit.  Then back soon with a bigger and better blog!!!!!!

The Swedes and music

The Sweds leave on Tuesday. Last Thurs night I fixed a huge batch of steak fajitas for everyone.  Juan reported to me that the Swedes hadn't left their room all day.  So I went to the door, pounded on it and merrily called out, "Swedes!  Come out and have dinner with us."  Turns out they were asleep.

Anyway, they stumbled out fifteen minutes later.  Tony wearing his (supposedly ironic) SuperFro shirt depicting a black guy with a large afro holding a gun.  KJ, who is black, glanced at his shirt, paused, raised his eyebrows then looked away shaking his head.  Anyway we had dinner and talked and generally tried to make a nice evening out of it.

Then we arrrived at the topic of music.  Juan had been playing Leonard Cohen.  Tony had never heard of him before.  When asked who his favorite musician was he replied, "George Michael.  yes, I love this George Michael.  I believe his is the greatest musician to ever live," and with this he put down his fork for emphasis and looked at all of us intently. 

We all looked back.  In horror.  I was the first to respond, "So wait.  George Michael?  This is a joke right? " I had to ask this as his sense of humor is sadly crippled and we're never sure when he's trying to be funny or not.  "Oh no," he replied, "I really, really love this singer.  You should hear his latest album.  It is pure genius."

Yeah, it turns out Tony was not only serious about George Michael but also loves Michael Jackson.  Especially his newer music.  He has never heard of Johnny Cash, Nick Cave, Joy Division, Elvis Costello...oh the list is long.  Is Sweden simply cut off from the world?  What explanation could there possibly be?  Needless to say, me, Juan, KJ, Mark (KJ's boyfriend) are all appropriately horrified. 

Now the Swedes are staying in all day, YET AGAIN.  Tony says he has a sore throat.  This makes the fifth day they've done this...they continue to blame it on a cold.  The same one they have now successfully passed onto everyone in the apt..  And we all continue to go to work, go to the gym, go out, and so forth.  The Swedes won't. Somehow, if they leave the apt with even the slightest sore throat they may collapse and die. 

Oh if that were only a possibily....

Spring arrives....

I've been bad about updating lately.  The cold I was suffering from got in the way of accomplishing many tasks, actually.  Then spring hit Massachusetts.  Spring in New England is a truly beautiful thing.  Everyone's mood improves immediately.  Suddenly, I have friends in my department I didn't even know I had.  And we all went out in one big racous group on Friday.  It was fun.  An orgy was even discussed and proposed. I opted out.  But I think a few opted in.  Writers.  Go figure.

I saw my first cardinal yesterday.  A big bright crimson bird.  He perched right outside my window while I was working on a poem.  I can't help but wonder what the bird flu will do not only to us, but the birds.  Will it kill them all off?  The headlines are getting more and more urgent about the upcoming pandemic.  I sometimes wonder though if things like the bird flu isn't just nature's plan to keep populations in check.  Anyway, the reality is starting to sink in.  Would I stockpile food?  Never leave my apartment for two months?  Would infrastructures collapse if everyone did this?

Well now that I've found something to worry about...

It's 70 degrees out.  I'm going to grab a stack of papers and grade them at an outdoor cafe.  I still have to do taxes.  Let's not think of that now either....

A solution....

So, since many of you know just how mental I get about finances and whatnot, I'm sure you can imagine how I devoted a good part of the evening fretting about money.  But then it hit me.  I'm simply not comfortable living on the edge like this.  I thought I would be.  In fact, in my daydreams I could imagine nothing better than laofing about all day scribbling poems and reading books.  While I HAVE indeed enjoyed that, it occured to me that many of my best poems were written when I was supposed to be working.  Or while on a job.  Those who have been reading my blog know this as I wrote about writing poetry on the Man's time. 

It's time to do that again.  I will not quit school, but several things became apparent to me.  A) My social life isn't exactly anything to write home about just yet.  B) I'm dirt poor.  Taxes are coming up too.  C) I write better poetry when holding down a job  D) My sleeping schedule is no longer anything one might confuse with a "schedule".  It's clear to me that I've been feeling depressed and purposeless.

Well it's no way to live.  I will feel more stable if I get a part time job.  It's incredibly apparent now.  As soon as I realized that, my spirits lifted.  A solution!  Why the hell didn't I just see this earlier? 

Anyway, so I go to Craigslist and the first ad I see is this one:

A social networking start-up targeting the pet industry is hiring a web producer / project manager. Compensation is $2,000 per month for 10 to 15 hours per week of effort. Work can be completed at a time and location convenient to the individual. There is potential for the role to evolve into a full-time position with six digit salary, bonus, and options. Interested parties should respond to this message with their resume. A detailed role description is as follows:

Role Description
• Take ownership over product roadmap
• Drive vendors through requirements, design, development, test, and product launch of new features
• Serve as the liaison between our existing technology vendors and the core operations of our business
• Participate in weekly status meetings, providing the web technology perspective on key strategic decisions

Preferred Applicant Experience
• 2 to 5 years web production / project management experience in start-ups
• Experience with online communities, ecommerce, and/or online advertising
• Exposure to user interface design for consumer audiences
• Prior user interface development experience is a nice to have
• Pet ownership is nice to have 

And there it was.  My solution.  I got right to work on the cover letter, updated my resume and just sent it all off.  Do you realize how perfect this would be?  And if not this one, I'm willing to bet something else will come along.  Plus, it will get me back in the game and I'll be ready for summer and less fearful.

I feel like a dolt for not seeing the light sooner, but now I'm feeling better.  I'm not even worried about my meeting with the Witch (my course director) tomorrow.  What is she gonna do?  Fire me?  I think not.  I kick ass as a teacher.