August 14, 2006

Settling In

After what can only be described as a brutal few days of moving, I am now here and happily settled in Brooklyn. First off, thank god for Brian and J.T. Tattitch, because without them this would have been impossible instead of just extremely painful. I had a really nice time with them, especially hanging out with J.T., who I don’t get to see very often. Hopefully I’ll still see Brian and Becca occasionally; it’s only four hours from here to D.C.

My apartment is still a wreck, sad to say—I have much unpacking left to do yet. But gradually things are falling into place. Today, for example, I installed some of the guitar wall hangers, and I put my computer together (having finally gotten internet access). The kitchen needs the most work, but I can’t really do too much there until the plumber comes (tomorrow) to install the new faucet and hopefully restore my water.

Almost every day I’ve been taking long walks around the neighborhood and surrounding areas, trying to get to know what’s around. Each time I go out, I decide on a mission for the outing, such as finding a certain DVD, or a specific furniture store, etc. This way I keep on walking around until I find it or give up out of pain in my feet. The walks have been getting longer as I’ve been getting used to it. Saturday was my most ambitious walk yet—I left my apartment and walked all the way to Union Square in Manhattan, crossing over the Brooklyn Bridge. Probably about a thirteen mile walk all told, and I saw a bunch of really interesting stuff.

I still don’t really know many people, especially here in Brooklyn. Friday I had a very nice evening with Kevin and his mother, but they’re in Queens, which isn’t exactly proximate. Yesterday I met up with David Opela, also a new transplant from St. Louis, and we walked around Cobble Hill for a while, which was cool. I think I may have found a guitar teacher, and unbelievably, he’s only three blocks away from me. What a find. I have my first lesson with him on Wednesday, and I have high hopes.

Now that I have a camera phone, I’ve been taking pictures while out on my walks. I’ll post some of them as I get some good shots.

Posted by alex at 07:58 PM | Comments (0)

July 21, 2006

48 Hours

Power came back on about three hours ago, after 48 hours of darkness and heat. Yesterday the heat index reached 120 degrees, and I spend most of the day over at Brody’s (his power was unaffected, thankfully), and then Ben and Carol Ann very generously offered me their place (also unaffected) for the night, as they’re both out of town.

So I’ll dispense with the stereotypical “you don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone” platitudes and just say thank you to AmerenUE for restoring my electricity. As of right now, hundreds of thousands of people around the city are still without power, AC, refrigeration, or lights, and I’m very grateful not to be among them anymore. I bought a disposable camera tonight, and tomorrow I’ll try taking and posting some pictures of the fallen tree branches.

Posted by alex at 11:16 PM | Comments (0)

July 20, 2006

Powerless

Last night, a major storm hit St. Louis, knocking out power to about 500,000 “customers”—meaning residences, offices, etc. That amounts to probably close to one million people without power, including me. AmerenUE is estimating that it will take them five to nine days to restore power fully, so who knows how long I’ll be without it. Considering I’m moving in ten days, the timing probably could’ve been better… but oh well.

No AC, no computer (I’m at Brody’s right now, thankfully he wasn’t affected), no refrigeration, no lights, no phone other than my cell phone. So if you need to contact me, use my cell number: (314) 922-1923. Here’s hoping everyone else is okay.

Posted by alex at 11:14 AM | Comments (0)

March 27, 2006

Anxiety dreams

Ok, so that last entry wasn’t all that exciting. However, hanging out with Rob and Danica was a blast and the culmination of a very successful trip to NY. It resolved a large issue that had been hanging over my head for quite a long while, and although I’m going to wait just a bit until things are official before making a more definite announcement (read: I apologize for being vague for the time being), nevertheless I’m excited about the propects for the future.

Therefore, naturally, my various neurosis must find a way to undermine these positive developments. This morning I woke with the latest in an ongoing series of anxiety dreams. In this one, it’s the Monday of only my second week of teaching high school, and I’ve arrived at school in the early afternoon. I’ve totally forgotten about and blown off my morning classes, and I have to teach an afternoon section of juniors in about 30 seconds, covering god-only-knows-what material. Basically I show up with just enough time to glance through a textbook and frantically search for the classroom, the location of which eludes me.

This particular premise recurrs about once a week; this morning’s twist involved some school policy called “asserting the fryer”, which all teachers are expected to do. I had (and have) no idea what that’s supposed to mean, so I decided I’d have to forgo asserting the fryer (what could my subconscious mean by this? seriously…) and concentrate instead on improvising that day’s lesson in addition to trying to figure out what on earth I was going to tell the principal about my having missed that morning’s classes.

I don’t know why I’m having such a hard time relaxing and enjoying these aforementioned future prospects. For some reason I’m clearly really anxious, which is kind of a drag. I’m sure when it finally comes to it, I’ll be just fine. For the moment, though, it’d be nice to be able to sleep without these nightmares.

In other exciting developments, check out this NY Times article. Heart-healthy pork? Guilt-free ribs? Doctors prescribing daily doses of bacon? “Some magical animal” indeed.

Posted by alex at 02:59 PM | Comments (1)

September 13, 2005

Playing catch-up

It’s been a good long while since I posted anything, but it’s not for lack of activity. Here’s a brief run-down of life and times the past couple of weeks:

That’s mostly it. It feels as though it’s been a whirlwind of activity, and to be honest, the onset of labs brings a welcome sense of routine to life. Once Jo goes to France and we figure out our communication schedule (no more calls from 11pm ‘till 4am, although boy I have been enjoying them), I think things will settle down considerably.

Posted by alex at 10:55 AM | Comments (0)

August 11, 2005

Oof… so hurting

You know what’s a really bad idea? Buying $20 worth of supermarket sushi on Sunday with the intention of eating it while sitting at the computer doing work, then getting invited to a barbecue, thus forgetting about the sushi until Thursday morning, realizing that if you don’t eat it, it’s $20 down the drain, and thus rationalizing its subsequent consumption. While washing it down with Cran-Grape.

To recap: 4-day-old supermarket sushi. Ugh. Very dumb, Basson.

In more pleasant news, I’ve been helping Carol Ann convert her basement into a studio for her artwork. It’s been fun and productive, and I’m really excited about getting it done, because I think she’ll really get a lot out of it. Yesterday was the scrubbing-and-painting phase; today it’s shelving and storage.

Ok, I need to go drink a lot of water right now.

Posted by alex at 11:47 AM | Comments (0)

August 06, 2005

Breaking even

I played poker last night, the first time I’ve ever played for real money. I must be the last person on earth to get into poker, but hey, better late than never, right? It was a lot of fun, and since I broke even, it turned out to be a night of fun for free. :)

I didn’t actually know the people there—I had been hanging out with Jon over at Liz’s place, and he got wind of this poker party over in the basement of a friend of a friend of his. But everyone was cool, and they were really patient with me, considering I didn’t really know what I was doing. The buy-in was only $5, so it’s not as though there was much at stake.

I have to give credit to Jacob for keeping me from losing money. Almost everything I know about poker (the sum total of which could fit in this parenthetical) I learned from him, including the most important lesson: as long as you don’t have the blind, you’re playing for free, which means: fold early, fold often. I hardly played any hands at all unless I felt as though I had a decent chance at winning the hand.

Only one time did that really burn me. I had a Queen and a ten, and the flop had both a Queen and a ten pocket Queens, and the flop had a pair of tens, so already I had two pair. The river was a third ten, and so at this point I figured I was in the clear. So I slowly raised the pot until the point where Jon went all-in… only to find that he had the fourth ten. Do’h! Thank god I had more chips than he had at the time.

Anyway, I wound up finishing second, which I attribute mostly to dumb luck. I won a few hands I probably shouldn’t have, but so it goes, right? In any event, I had a great time, lots of fun, and now I’m hoping I’ll be able to find a semi-regular game.

Posted by alex at 11:37 AM | Comments (2)

August 05, 2005

Back in the Lou

I have to confess that not too much is going on since I’ve been back. Monday brought Nicole’s monthly pot-luck, which was fun, partly because it was so small. With Ben, Carol Ann, Patty, and Josiah all gone (the latter two for good), the only people there were me and Jon, Nicole and Paul of course, and Greg Wade. Both Jon and Nicole made pasta salad with canned fish, which seemed like a pretty strange coincidence. But they were both delicious, so no worries.

Tuesday I went to the Cards game, and it was truly satisfying. It was Cards-Marlins, Chris Carpenter vs. Dontrelle Willis, and the good guys won 3-1. Great pitching, especially from Carpenter, who appears headed towards his first Cy Young award and the first for the Cards since I don’t know when. With the regular lineup as battered by injuries as it has been (four starters are currently on the DL), the pitching has been a godsend.

I guess the biggest thing going on is I’m making a concerted effort to clean and organize my apartment, including throwing out the ton of crap that has accumulated. It’s going slowly, I admit, but it’s going. Today I cleared off my entire desk—by which I mean I threw everything onto the couch, but that means that I’ll be forced to address it.

With Greg having lent me his monitor, I decided to splurge a bit and purchase a new computer—a Mac Mini. It should arrive next week. This is nice for me because it means I’ll be able to leave one of my computers (right now I’m thinking the laptop, but that may change) at school so I won’t have to bring it back and forth. And that, in turn, means I’ll be more inclined to walk or bike to school; when I was sans car and I had to walk to work, carrying the bag was a major hassle.

Ok, I guess it’s back to cleaning… *sigh*. I couldn’t possibly be worse at this particular chore.

Posted by alex at 04:28 PM | Comments (2)

July 10, 2005

First day at HFH

Yesterday was my first day actually on the job at Habitat For Humanity. They sent me an email announcing an introductory meeting for people interested in being crew leaders, so I wanted to attend that. As it turns out, the “meeting” wasn’t much more than a brief introduction to the Site Coordinator, a very friendly guy named William, who outlined the basics and then assigned me to a house.

Generally, here’s how it works: on this site, HFH is building about a dozen or so houses on two or three adjacent streets. William is in charge of directing construction at the entire site—naturally, what this really means is he goes around from house to house checking in and making sure things are running smoothly and resolving whatever issues might arise, be they construction-, materials-, or personnel-related. Each house has one or two House Leaders who are, obviously, in charge of construction for that particular house. They determine what needs to be done and then delegate jobs to the Crew Leaders, who then direct the volunteers.

At least, that’s the idea. In practice (at least, on this particular day at this particular house—this, was, after all, only my first day), things are less rigidly structured. We had about eight or nine volunteers at my house, including two House Leaders and three Crew Leaders, so perhaps we had a pretty high “* Leaders”-to-volunteers ratio. Mike (one of the House Leaders) reminded me that as a Crew Leader, I needed to make sure the volunteers were happily and busily employed, and that if I found myself at work while volunteers were standing around doing nothing, than something was wrong. I was glad for the reminder, although since it was my first day, I really felt more like a volunteer than a Crew Leader anyway.

The house at this stage isn’t much more than an empty box. The concrete for the foundation had been poured only last week, and we had two major tasks to complete in our 9-3 work shift. First we fitted a large vinyl sheet around the outside of the foundation to act as waterproofing, and secondly we installed a cap of two-by-fours on top of the basement walls, on which the rest of the house will be built. It seems that a foundation rarely ends up being perfectly level, and so these two-by-fours are laid out and shimmed underneath so as to insure a smooth, level platform on which the rest of the house can sit.

We finished maybe 90% of the job by 1:00, but between lunch and the overwhelming heat, the last 10% really took all of the last two hours. The heat was really amazing and oppressive. The forecast said highs around 93 with a heat index of 100, and I believe that, but our work was below ground level in an empty box—in other words, without shade or breeze. Fortunately, someone had brought a large cooler of water, or else we’d have been in trouble; in fact I heard that someone got heat stroke at one of the other houses. I’d forgotten to get sunscreen, but I borrowed some from one of the other volunteers, so while I’m pretty pink right now, at least I’m not severely burned.

I really had a great time. The people were all fun, friendly, and mostly easy to work with. The work itself wasn’t overwhelmingly difficult, but it provided enough physical challenge to make it enjoyable. I was really nervous at the start of the day, typical first-day jitters, but now I’m looking forward to going back, and in fact I’m a bit sorry I won’t be able to return for three weeks.

Posted by alex at 05:01 PM | Comments (0)

July 03, 2005

Take me out to the ballgame

Playing: King’s X, Faith Hope Love

Lots to say; I probably should have posted yesterday, but I didn’t have a chance. So here goes:

Friday night, Bequette (as Steve has said he wants to call us now; we’ll see if it sticks) played Off Broadway. I had a great time—I did my schtick, with the jumping around and dancing, etc., and it was a lot of fun. Some of my friends have asked me how I can enjoy being in this band when the music isn’t all that great, and the answer is simply that I love playing music. I just love it, on a very physical, visceral level. I mean, I don’t love every single gig, and there are times when it’s a drag, but playing live in front of an appreciative crowd that digs what I’m doing (even if, objectively speaking, I wouldn’t dig it myself) is an incredible turn-on.

Plus, I think my contributions have made the music better. It’s still not The Beatles, but it’s better than it was, and hopefully it’ll continue to improve.

I’m going to break with the chronological telling of events here to ask for opinions on the following: Steve called me up today to say “great show last night” and then he launched into fifteen minutes worth of “you’re a great bassist and I’m glad you’re in the band, etc. etc., but we need to improve your image. As shallow as it is, A&R reps go through a hundred press kits a day, and if they don’t like the look of the band in the picture, they don’t even bother to listen to the demo CD. With that in mind, I’d like to take you shopping to buy hipper clothes. I’d like you to consider shaving your beard, or at least wear a goatee, and I’d like you to color at least the grey out. I’d like you to work out a bit and lose a few pounds, do some pushups or something. I don’t myself care what you look like or what you wear, but we’re trying to land a record deal…” (obviously I’m paraphrasing)

He’s brought this up before, and I blew him off then. It seems to have resurfaced, though, so I guess I have to consider it. What do you think? On the one hand, fuck that, right? But on the other hand, what do I care what I wear on stage? I mean, he’s not saying I have to wear hipper clothes on my own time, just during shows. And hair is temporary—if I hate it, it’ll grow back. I don’t know…

Kelly came to visit to cheer me up, just for the night; she left Chicago around 7:00 and arrived shortly after I got home from the show and then left this afternoon around 3:00. We had a great time hanging out, and we went to the King & I for lunch, to which I haven’t been in almost a year. She’s such a devoted friend, and I’m really lucky to have her in my life.

I decided to go to the Cardinal’s game tonight, and I tried to round up some people to come with me, but I couldn’t generate any interest. As it turned out, I’m glad I didn’t, because going on my own was amazing. There weren’t any non-single tickets left (standing room only), but there was a single ticket available in the lowest section, 10 rows RIGHT BEHIND HOME PLATE. Totally sweet, totally worth the $66. I mean, I was about twenty yards from the batter’s box. I could see the break of the pitches better than I’ve ever seen it before, and it’s fascinating.

But it gets better than that: when I got there, an older man was sitting in my seat, so I asked him if maybe I’d gotten my seat wrong—turns out he did, his ticket said seat #9, and but he sat in #8; totally no big deal—so after moving, we introduced ourselves. Turns out he’s a scout for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, attending the game to scout out the Cardinal’s pitchers in case they want to make a trade.

Let me be clear: this is a guy (Don something…) in his late sixties who’s spent his entire life in professional baseball. He signed with the Brooklyn (!) Dodgers at age 17 in 1953. Actually, this was a dumb move on his part: he was a shortstop/second baseman, and as anyone who knows anything about baseball knows, the 50’s Dodgers featured Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson—both Hall of Famers—in the middle infield, so Don was stuck in the minor leagues with no chance of breaking into the majors. He could have signed with the St. Louis, Philedelphia, or Baltimore, but his dad was a big Dodgers fan, so…

Anyway, after his playing days were over, he went to San Diego as a coach, and then went into scouting. I could go on and on, but my point is this is the closest I’ve ever been to professional baseball, and it was awesome. This guy has seen it all, he knows ten times more about the game than I’ll ever hope to know, and I just wanted to keep talking to him all night. Every time I asked a question or made an observation, I felt like such a naive, clueless fool, but so what? What a thrilling experience.

Too bad the Cards lost (3-1 to Colorado). Albert broke my heart twice, once in the seventh with the bases loaded and one out, and he popped out, and then again in the ninth with one out and two men on—a double would tie the game, a homer would win it—and he grounded into a game-ending double play. Arrghh.

My god, it’s late. I was going to write about having had a good time hanging out with Ben and Carol Ann after the game, but yo, it’s bedtime.

Posted by alex at 02:39 AM | Comments (2)

June 20, 2005

Domestic Labor

I went raspberry picking Saturday morning. Then yesterday afternoon I made jam from the berries and baked bread in the ceramic bread pot that I bought the weekend before. Yummy stuff.

The picking was fun, as usual. I was joined by Kelly, Ben, Carol Ann, and Caroline, and with Kelly’s yield, I took home about 8 pints of berries. Lots and lots. They’re a bit tart, but that makes for good jam, and the jam is good indeed.

It was nice to introduce Kelly to my friends, but it seemed as if she tried to make sure everyone knew that she’s known me the longest and the most intimately. She almost seemed defensive—not agressively so, but just in the sense that she seemed to be staking a claim that no one else cared much about. I guess I can understand that in a group of people all living in St. Louis except for her, she doesn’t want to feel ancillary or out of place. Still, I worry… I’m not really sure about what, to be honest.

Posted by alex at 11:20 AM | Comments (0)

June 14, 2005

Posting Infrequently

It’s been over a week since I posted last. I feel badly about that; I’d like to keep this up on a pretty regular basis, but for whatever reason I don’t feel as though I’ve had much to say lately.

I’ve been working steadily at the PHP/MySQL stuff, and it’s going okay. I’m a bit concerned that I find myself just copying code from the book rather than really study it to understand it, but I also think the understanding will come with time and experience.

On Saturday Carol Anne invited me to go to the Central West End Art Fair with her, and we had a great time. I bought a small ceramic pot in which to bake small loaves of bread, which I think I should start to do. We got rained on a little, but that was part of the fun. We talked and laughed and generally enjoyed each other’s company.

Later that evening, she and Ben came over to hang out. I didn’t realize that’s what they were doing at first, in fact I didn’t realize that’s what they did until after they left; I can be so socially naive. Carol Ann called to see if she could borrow my Sopranos DVDs, and so I met them downstairs with the discs, expecting she’d pick them up and then take off, but instead they came upstairs (she had just picked up Ben from the med school where he’d been studying for his boards). We had a good time, but in retrospect I wish I had cleaned the apartment and had something to offer them in the way of food and drink. Oh well.

Alli tells me that Pete Cernaka is coming back to St. Louis. I should email him. He’s a good guy, even if his relationship with Alli seems to have been a bit strained recently. I wonder why he’s been so reticent to maintain it? Of course, I only hear from her end of things; undoubtedly he has a different perspective.

Believe it or not, I’m eager to get back to work, so I’m going to cut this short now.

Posted by alex at 07:39 AM | Comments (0)

June 05, 2005

Strawberries!

Phil Valko, Ben Alter, and I went strawberry picking yesterday. We had a great time, actually. We met outside my apartment at about 8:15 and drove out to Lakeview Farms, which was about forty-five minutes away. On a depressing note, the signs of suburban sprawl permeated everything we saw on the way out there; it almost seemed as if the farm was tucked in between strip malls. Ugh.

We picked for about an hour and a half, amassing ten pounds each, and then headed home. I gave Ben a ride back to his house, which was nice because I’d never seen it before. He invited me in, gave me a brief tour, and we hung out for a bit before I headed home for a nap.

I think I’d like to make jam. I talked with Mom this morning about it, and it definitely seems doable. I have to get off my lazy butt and do it, though, before the strawberries go bad.

Posted by alex at 07:39 PM | Comments (0)

May 20, 2005

I’m getting real tired of insomnia

Hehe. I oughta turn that into a song or something.

I’m not going to use this post to talk about Jess, because I’m (hopefully) through with that. No more. No more reading her journal, that’s for sure. No more emails to or from her. No more IM’s. If she calls me, I’ll tell her not to and then hang up. No more bitching about her to everyone else. And hopefully no more posting about her. I’m actively moving to remove her from my life.

Mom had a great suggestion for me this evening—I should look into Habitat For Humanity. I’d get out of the house, meet new people, volunteer for a more-than-worthy cause, and learn some valuable skills along the way. I’m going to look into it; let’s see what’s out there.

I really wish I could sleep, though.

Posted by alex at 03:30 AM | Comments (0)

May 16, 2005

Beautiful day

Yesterday’s weather was so nice I just couldn’t stay inside. So I took a book (I’m giving The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay another shot) over to Forest Park. I found a quiet spot to read and spent an hour and a half out there. The weather today is similarly gorgeous, so maybe I’ll do it again today.

Jeff crashed on my couch last night. He was coming through St. Louis on his way back from a wedding in Chicago, but his car started to make some troubling noises, so in order to be safe, he decided to stay the night and have it looked at the next day.

It’s always good to see him. We talked last night about the possibility of my buying a house, which has been on my mind since playing with Phil on Saturday. The possibility of purchasing an inexpensive fixer-upper in a rising neighborhood such as Old North St. Louis intrigues me, but makes me nervous as well. I wish I had a firmer knowledge of my future at Wash U., but right now I don’t know how much longer I’ll be there. I suppose in some sense it doesn’t matter—I could just get a job elsewhere. But buying a house here also means that I’m probably staying here for a while, and while that has some definite attractions, I still haven’t let go of the idea that I’ll go back to Chicago.

I guess I should call Dad and see what he thinks about it.

Posted by alex at 10:16 AM | Comments (0)

May 09, 2005

Insomnia

I can’t sleep. This is really irritating, and it’s been going on way too long now.

For weeks, I couldn’t sleep because of the whole Jess thing. I was so upset, and on such a visceral, foundational level, that my stomach simply wouldn’t let me physically relax. So I’d get up at 3 every morning and check my email, hoping there’d be something from her, or whatever.

I don’t do that anymore. I’m angry with her still, of course, but I’m more emotionally removed from the situation than I used to be. Certainly I don’t feel that same sense of physical tension that used to prevent sleep. I’m starting to feel that maybe I’m getting over her at last, which is a welcome relief.

I don’t know what’s wrong now; I just toss and turn. I’m thinking of buying some sleeping pills. I’ve never used them before, and given my general distaste for and suspicion of drugs in all forms, I’m a bit reluctant. But this insomnia has got to stop. I’m tired all the time, and this makes me lazy and unproductive. And then at the end of the day I haven’t done much, so I’m tired but not exactly worn out, so I still don’t really sleep well. I’m hoping that the sleeping pills will provide me with a couple of night consecutive quality sleep, and that then I’ll feel better and more motivated to do the things I both want and need to do.

Like resume swimming, for example. I haven’t been to the pool in two weeks, and I need to get back into that. I’m feeling fat again. Whine whine whine… :) Well, anyway. Enough of this. I’m not tired enough to go back to bed, but maybe I can find something to amuse me until I am.

Posted by alex at 04:43 AM | Comments (0)