March 18, 2006
Hangin’ with Danica and Rob
I’m in Manhattan right now.
Posted by alex at 12:09 AM | Comments (0)
September 21, 2005
Mari’s wedding
This past weekend was Mari’s wedding, and a beautiful wedding it was, too. Actually, the entire weekend was amazing and intense; I came home exhausted yet exhilirated.
First things first: the wedding itself. Mari did me the huge honor of asking me not only to play the music at the ceremony, but also to sign the ketubah as well, which means I acted as her witness to the validity of the wedding contract. This moved me more than I seem to able to articulate, and I felt genuinely honored. The ceremony itself went smoothly (I played fine, and I didn’t need to be nearly an anxious about it as I’d feared) and relatively quickly. Mari and Eliza chose a primarily Jewish ceremony with nods to Eliza’s Episcopal tradition.
I have a backlog of unfinished entries and drafts. In the interest of getting back into blogging, I’m going to just publish them as is, despite their rough form.
Posted by alex at 09:36 AM | Comments (0)
August 06, 2005
Jeff and Erin’s wedding
I just got back from the recepiton for Jeff and Erin, which was held in the same glassblower’s studio where Sac Lunch had its first gig. What a great time, and what a nice reception. Not at all stuffy or formal, in fact it was really relaxed. Lots of people talk about wanting their reception to be basically just a party for their friends and families, but this achieved that goal better than most.
J&E hired a combination bluegrass/rockabilly/cajun band which set a really fun tone. People were up and dancing, clapping, hoe-downing, and generally getting their groove on. The food was buffet-style barbeque and the seating was open, which really leant itself to moving from table to table to talk to different people.
And, of course, the people were great. J&E have exceptional taste in friends, and I enjoyed seeing many quality people who I don’t often get a chance to run into. In particular, I reconnected with some old Cristo Rey teachers, including Bridget and her husband Rob and Nardy and her husband Matt. Bob and Grace Sweeny were there as well of course, and I had a fascinating conversation with Bob about the state of things at De La Salle, the school that he basically founded and where Jeff worked while he was living here in St. Louis.
I should make a concerted effort to keep in touch with these people. They’re all of them truly high quality folk.
Posted by alex at 11:51 PM | Comments (0)
August 03, 2005
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July 16, 2005
Saturday in Syracuse
I’m in Syracuse with Mari and Eliza, and I’m having a great time. It’s so so good to seem them again; I’ve really missed them both. Mari looks great, she’s in fantastic shape, and apparently she’s pretty committed to staying in great shape, since she “can’t gain a pound and still fit into [her] wedding dress.”
We went out to a farmer’s market this morning and then on to the Syracuse Arts and Crafts fair. Not surprisingly, this one is pretty much isomorphic to the Clayton Arts and Crafts fair to which I went with Carol Ann last month. Still, it’s fun to walk up and down and see what there is to be seen. We also walked over the the Syracuse Blues Fest, which was taking place just a few blocks away.
On a sad note, Mari and I witnessed someone die, perhaps of heat stroke. We had wanted to use the ATM at a local bank branch, and this man was standing there before us, looking strange. Mari thought he was perhaps a bit drunk, while I thought he was perhaps a not-fully-together homeless man. He was a large man, pretty obese, wearing an apron that made him look like a short-order cook (which perhaps he was). Anyway, he was standing at the ATM in such a way as to make us a bit nervous, so we left and went to a different ATM.
Ten minutes later, we happened to be passing by on our way to the Blues Fest, and we saw an ambulence and three fire trucks at the ATM. Naturally, we were curious. We walked over and saw the man lying on his back surrounded by paramedics applying an oxygen mask. The man was literally blue, like a blueberry, his eyes were open but his body limp like dead weight. The paramedics were treating him as if he were alive, so we assumed he was. They put him into the ambulence and we left.
Later on we passed again on our way back to the Arts Fair, and we saw a police officer taking crime scene photos. We asked about the man, and he said he had died, probably of health-related causes. He speculated on heat stroke and high blood pressure, and apparently before he collapsed the man had been saying that he had just got off of work where it had been really hot.
His death is sad, to be sure, but also sad is the fact that we saw him ten minutes before he died and instead of approaching him and seeing if he was okay, we avoided him altogether. Mari and I are not thoughtless people, of course—if we had suspected he was in some sort of trouble, we would have done something immediately. What’s sad is that instead of assuming he was simply someone in need of help, we assumed he was someone drunk or troubled, or otherwise potentially dangerous and to be avoided.
While this certainly put a sober edge to the day, the rest of it was fun. We met a couple with a 14-week-old puppy, the cutest little dog I’ve ever seen. It’s a breed I’d never heard of before: a Coton de Tulear. Completely adorable, like a mini sheep dog. Right now we’re homing resting before going out to a movie. Tomorrow morning, Mari and I are driving in to NYC, where I’ll be for the next week.
Posted by alex at 04:44 PM | Comments (1)
July 08, 2005
This is why I don’t have a TV
Brody has done something evil to me. He has gotten me hooked on a video game (Champions of Norath, for the PS2), and we’ve played it for six-to-eight hours at a time three of the last four days. Now it’s past 3am, and I’m just now winding down.
And so to explain today’s entry title: I don’t know whether or not I’m easily addicted to drugs or gambling (I do know I’m not addicted to alcohol), but I’m clearly capable of becoming addicted to the screen. I noticed this a few years ago when Kelly and I lived up in North County. Every night we’d eat dinner in front of the TV and then spend the next several (meaning six to eight) hours channel surfing. It didn’t matter that nothing was on—I couldn’t stop. And I mean until 2 or 3 in the morning; I’d be watching infomercials and practicing scales on the guitar. It was terrible. When we moved into different apartments, I swore I wouldn’t get a TV, and I’m so so SO glad I haven’t.
I’m still pretty hooked on it, to be honest. I watch a disturbing amount of DVDs on my computer, and it really prevents me from getting the stuff done that I want and/or need to do. For me, it’s an irresistable distraction, and I mean irresistable almost literally.
Fortunately, I’ll be leaving town for three weeks starting on Tuesday, and this will pull me away from the TV and the video games and the DVDs and force my computer usage to more worthwhile pursuits—like blogging! :)
Posted by alex at 03:10 AM | Comments (3)
June 29, 2005
Karma
This last weekend, Carol Ann and Ben asked me to look after their cats, who are so skittish that I went Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and still only saw one of them (there are two), and even then for only a moment on Sunday. Hehe; I’m glad Toby and Griffin are so friendly.
While I was over there, I thought I’d wash the dishes—there weren’t that many, and I just thought it’d be a nice thing to do. It’s not like I cleaned the whole house; we’re talking about a half-hour’s worth of work. Still, it’s the kind of thing I’d love for people to do for me, especially as a coming-home surprise. Jess cleaned my apartment last summer when I was out on the East Coast last summer, and I was really touched.
Anyway, they were also touched, and as a thank you, they took me out to dinner last night to a delicious Brazilian restaurant (mmm, yuca fries… ) and afterwards we went bowling. I gotta say, I’m really coming to like them a lot.
Posted by alex at 08:02 AM | Comments (1)
June 24, 2005
Out on the town with Jon
What a great night. Jon had tickets to a Soulard pub crawl that he wanted to attend because Jupiter Jazz was playing, and he invited me along. We had a fantastic time. The evening started with ribs at Smoking Al’s, then off to The Grizzly Bear to see Jupiter Jazz. I had my first whiskey—honestly, I didn’t enjoy it much—and we listened to the set. I also worked on some PHP stuff, because I’m a nerd that way (actually because I get more work done out of the house than in it).
Then we went to the Broadway Oyster Bar to hear the Fundamentals. They had checked out SacLunch.com and sent Jon an email via his Watt$on account, so he felt obliged to check them out. It wasn’t actually part of the pub crawl, so we had to pay the cover. :( But nevertheless, it was fun. The Fundamentals sound like like a cross between Sublime and Jamiriquoi, and they were fun to listen to. The bassist is really good; I was suitably impressed. Chops, taste, groove, the whole package.
After the set, we introduced ourselves, and they invited us to stay with the possibility of calling Jon up to freestyle in a later set. I wanted to go see Eric’s band Languid play over at Mangia, so we said we’d come back later.
We headed to Mangia, where we ran into Leah, which was cool. She was there with two of her high school friends, including one named Maggie who was really attractive (Jon thought she wasn’t all that bright, though. Hm.). Anyway, Eric was thrilled to see us, and I was glad to introduce him to Jon. We stayed for maybe half of Languid’s set, and we really enjoyed it. They play straight rock, but nicely, and I wouldn’t mind hearing them again. I also got to meet Eric’s girlfriend Erin, who was nice.
Then back to the Broadway Oyster Bar for the Fundamental’s last set. They did indeed call Jon up, and he represented well. Midnight marked his birthday, so I bought him a couple of drinks, and then we came home around 1:00. All in all, a great night out on the town.
Posted by alex at 01:43 AM | Comments (0)
June 21, 2005
Hanging out with Laura
I walked to Blockbuster to return a DVD, and when I came home I went in the back way. In the hallway were Laura and an old man—who turned out to be Dennis Lutsky (!)—discussing some electrical problem she was having. He left, and she and I stood and chatted in the hallway for a bit before she invited me in for a drink.
Naturally, I agreed, despite my not really wanting a drink. I had a glass of white wine, though, and we sat and talked for a good while. She’s always been really friendly and I’ve enjoyed the passing-by conversations we’ve had all along, but it was great to finally hang out and talk with her.
She’s not, as I had assumed, a Wash. U. student. She went to Maryville University and majored in Biology, and now she works in the Med School. Her apartment is very tastefully decorated and clean (she does the whole “oh my place is a mess” thing, though, which makes me laugh; my place is a mess, hers is practically immaculate), and she has a pretty black cat named Betty.
And she has great taste in music. Every time I hear music coming from her place, it’s always good stuff; I remember the first time I heard music from her apartment—it was Radiohead’s Kid A and I thought “right on, whoever lives there must be pretty cool.” And she is pretty cool, as it turns out.
Wouldn’t you know it, though, she’s moving at the end of the month. I’ll have to get her number or something and keep in touch; we should get together and hang out more often.
Posted by alex at 11:30 PM | Comments (0)
June 06, 2005
Relating to Carol Ann
First Monday of the month, and that means Nicole’s pot luck. I made Chicken Piccata on a grand scale, and it was delicious. Ben and Carol Ann were there as usual, and I’m feeling more and more comfortable hanging out with her. I’ve always known her as so quirky and whimsical, which is cool of course but hard to take seriously, and that’s made it hard for me to relate to her. But recently I’ve come to see a more centered, down-to-earth side of her that’s easier for me to talk to. It’s not as if the down-to-earth side negates the quirky whimsy, because she’s still that, but more and more she seems less outright strange and more three-dimensionally interesting.
I’m listening to KMOX, which has just run an ad for Tylanol PM as a sleep aid. I really hope I get some sleep tonight. I’m really tired (so to speak) of not being able to sleep.
I’m hoping to see Mom, Dad, and Duncan in Chicago on Wednesday, but it’ll require moving or cancelling rehearsal with Steve. It’s been so hard for us (Steve and Eric and I) to get together recently that I feel bad asking to cancel rehearsal again, but then the same could be said about seeing my family. hmph
Posted by alex at 10:33 PM | Comments (0)
May 30, 2005
Farwell dinner with Johanna
Last night I had dinner with Johanna for the last time before she leaves for New York. [ed. It’s likely I’ll see her again tonight at Jon’s homecoming barbecue.] Her sister Danielle had come into town the day before, so I got to meet her. She’s really nice, and an excellent cook—she made the dinner, pasto with a tomato-based sauce with salmon. Very tasty.
Jo and I agreed that’s it’s really too bad we only started hanging out a lot recently, although it’s hard to see how that would have happened while Jess and I were still together. Anyway. I really do like Johanna a lot, and I’m going to miss her. I’m looking forward to seeing her this summer in New York, though, and I’m glad to have met her sister, too, because I think that will make visiting her easier.
I don’t have much to say in particular about last evening, actually, except that I had a nice time, as I always seem to do with her. I would have liked to stay longer, but Jess was coming over to visit, and I left just before she got there. I’m still not ready to see her yet; I’m hoping she doesn’t come to Jon’s barbecue tonight, but if she does, I’ll just leave quietly.
Posted by alex at 07:37 PM | Comments (0)
Weekend with Kelly
With the loss of Antonia weighing heavy on her heart, Kelly felt like she needed to be together with me for the weekend. She came down on Friday, and she left today (Monday) about three hours ago.
We had a nice weekend together, and it was just about the perfect length. I think we both needed it, really. I was glad to be there for her, to comfort her and support her; she’s really grieving, and I feel so badly for her. On the other hand, it was so nice to be with someone again. I don’t mean just sexually, although of course that was great, but much more than that I mean the comfort and companionship of having a partner, even if only temporarily.
Honestly, there isn’t much to say about the weekend; it was pretty laidback and uneventful. But I’m glad she came to visit, and I’m looking forward to seeing her again when she comes for another visit in three weeks.
Posted by alex at 07:29 PM | Comments (0)
May 26, 2005
Another evening with Johanna
This time it was to go see Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room. I was pretty disappointed. I don’t feel as though I gained much insight into what exactly they were doing. I mean, I understand that there isn’t a lot of sense to be made there—that’s partially the point, right? That their business model and accounting practices were all a sham? But I didn’t leave with a much better understanding of what they thought they were trying to pull.
I brought Go over to Johanna’s place beforehand, and we started up a game, which we continued upon our return. For a first-time player, she really picked it up quickly; I’m pretty impressed. She’s going to have me over for dinner either tomorrow or Friday, and we’ll play some more. I get the feeling she could improve pretty quickly to the point where she beat me regularly.
Which is so friggin’ attractive. *sigh* I’m sorry she’s leaving.
Posted by alex at 02:21 AM | Comments (0)
May 24, 2005
Antonia boo
I saw Kelly online Sunday night and decided to say hi. I don’t know if I should have; she did, after all, want space and separation from me, and until Sunday night I had respected that need. But I hadn’t seen her online since February, and I guess I figured that her return meant that maybe she was ready to talk again.
She was glad to hear from me and talk with me, as it turns out. Antonia was really sick, and she was beside herself with worry. She (Antonia) hadn’t eaten hardly at all in almost a week, and she was moping around and acting listless. So Kelly scheduled an appointment with the vet for testing on Monday morning around 8:30.
She called me at 10:00, crying, to say that the vet suspected an intestinal tumor and was going to perform exploratory surgery that very morning to find out if it could be removed. Kelly called me back at 12:30, completely hysterical, saying that the vet had found too much damage and hemorrhaging and had decided not to wake Antonia up after the surgery. Kelly could go down there to say her goodbyes, and then they would euthanize her.
It all happened so suddenly, and now she’s gone. Poor little cat; she must have been miserable that last week. And Kelly is in for a terrible few weeks ahead of her as she grieves. I feel so sad for her. Antonia was only six years old, and Kelly loved her like a child.
Posted by alex at 08:02 AM | Comments (0)
May 08, 2005
My night out with Johanna
I had a great time last night, really great. Johanna and I went out dinner, coffee, and a movie, and I enjoyed her company so much I’m still smiling.
She called me yesterday around noon or so to ask if I wanted to see a movie. This took me by surprise, I’ll admit, but not entirely. I know she and Jon hang out almost every day, but with Jon in Europe now, I can imagine that Jo might be feeling his absence. Anyway, I was thrilled that she called and we made plans to get together later.
I had the inspiration later of asking her if she wanted to have sushi before the movie (which was to start at 7:20). Since we were going to the Tivoli (she wanted to see Kung Fu Hustle), I thought we could go to the Japanese restaurant across the street (I can’t remember its name right now). The thing is, though, I didn’t even have the idea until 6:00, and for fear that she’d be ready to go immediately, I showered first before calling her. She wasn’t ready immediately, and we didn’t get going until around 6:30.
Dinner was great. We ordered all ala carte sushi—eel, tuna, salman, yellowtail, St. Louis roll, other yummy stuff. Naturally it was delicious. But we didn’t get out of there in time; I had counted on the typical twenty minutes or so of pre-movie “entertainment”, but it seems the Tivoli only does about five such minutes, and we were twenty minutes late. The next show wasn’t for two hours, so we decided to get coffee in the Loop and sit outside, since it was such a beautiful day.
So we did. Coffee to go at Meshugga’s and then since their outside tables were all full, we walked down the street and found an empty table outside of Riddle’s. The wait staff insisted that we be paying customers if we were going to use their table, so we looked at the dessert menu—and they were serving rhubarb pie. *sigh* so nice.
And then finally the movie at 9:45. I’ll have to write more about the movie itself later; suffice it right now to say that it was the goofiest, funniest movies I’ve seen in a while. Truly absurd, but in a great way.
All this is by way of saying that Johanna and I were out until 11:30 or so, which amounts to five hours together, and it was fantastic. I’m so glad I had the idea for dinner, and I’m so glad we missed the first movie time, because it meant we got to keep talking. We talked almost non-stop for what must have been three hours.
I find Johanna easy to talk to, and I guess she must find it easy to talk to me, too. She says that in her social circles, she feels her young age a lot, as if she’s always the least worldly, knoweldgeable, or experienced person in the room. But I don’t see her that way at all. She seems really together, interesting, intelligent, and mature, and I don’t at all feel like we’re on different levels when we talk.
Brody has mentioned how many of the girls he meets aren’t what he calls “deep”, and while I think that connotes something different from what he intends, I tend to agree with him. It’s not just girls, of course, but Brody and I talk about girls a lot, so that’s the context in which it comes up. Anyway, his point is that many of the people he meets don’t seem to spend much time thinking about themselves or the world around them too deeply, that they’re satisfied with a shallow interpetation of what they observe, either because that’s as much as they’re capable of interpreting or because they simply don’t feel like putting forth the effort to dig deeper.
Johanna is deep in this sense. She’s very much interested in exploring not just what happens around her, but the reasons those things happen and the reasons for those reasons. She’s genuinely curious, and for its own sake. She’s genuinely capable of sincere self-examination, and she’s not shy at being honest about exploring her motivations. She’s an excellent conversational springboard—she puts forth interesting ideas that I really enjoy listening to, and those ideas inspire ideas of my own that I want to share.
Last night’s conversation was all over the place, as I suppose any three-hour conversation will be. We talked about our parents influences over our educational paths, we talked about the role of art in society, we talked about our own frustrations (well, mostly hers) with being a creative person in a culture that doesn’t necessarily value those contributions. We laughed and joked.
I just really had a great time.
Posted by alex at 12:06 PM | Comments (1)