Jan 2004

rez' 2004 Jan 01

xin nian kuai le/feliz de anos nuevo/akemashite omedetou gozaimasu! an all that...unless of course yer rockin' the lunar calendar...

i've only really got a couple of resolutions this year:

1. get my shit together and get organized...i've got plenty of shit i have to keep track of and it's hard as shit for me to do it. time for a banker's file.

2. get a stable job and hang onto it for dear life.

3. work on the art of communicating with people better.

that's it. that's a big enough project i think.

woke up around 1 pm and walked outside to see if there was anything left after the apocalypse. looks like fatface is really sick though...she's puffed up to twice her ususal size and has mucus coming out of various orfices...poor kitty. i think she has feline rhinotracheitis. eww.

cristin called and i had a good talk with her but now it's time for me to get on with it. i've got some visiting to do today.

thought of a good campaign bumper sticker slogan for 2004--one that works for almost everyone: "(anybody but) bush 2004" feel free to make yer own...

i'm out

good things

2004 Jan 01

a fire burning in the woodstove

cats in your lap

good friends who make you popcorn

a boy who makes you laugh

sake

aww yeah.

life is good.

things have been alright

2004 Jan 08

Lately things have been going okay for a change. Can't say that the money is coming in, but life has been better anyway.

It's been pretty cold lately so I've been staying inside most of the time. We've been hanging out around the fire most of the day and doing stuff around the house. The amazing thing is that I'm not bored by being stuck inside, but am actually enjoying it.

People have been around a lot more lately, except Casey. We've been hanging out and it's a lot like old times around here. It really hit me when we were sitting outside on the porch on the last warm night we had, talking to Suzie...when i first moved here we were always sitting out on the porch until late late late having these fascinating conversations. the kind like you really only have in college. but it's been a long time since we've done that here.

So I've been enjoying things, basking in the slower rhythms of the house during winter. Enjoying our little community.

Casey's birthday was last weekend and she had a joint birthday party with Sarah at the felix house. (poor felix house, they're being disbanded by their landlord). It was one of the best parties i've been to in a while...i had my reservations since felix parties are usually too big for me. but this one was invitation only so it was all people i knew which i vastly prefer to the crowds of trendy midtown kids that i don't really know all that well...that's the usual felix party crowd. it was a costume party and other than anastasia, everybody dressed up beautifully. brian was spinnin' and it turned quickly into an all night dance party. awesome.

but it was kind of triste too...because it reminds me that sarah's leaving, that ram's leaving, that felix is disbanding, that denny's moving, and that a lot of things are going to change in a big way in the near future.

still waiting on the library to call. i wish they would get about it, although i guess there's still a whole week left before i should even worry about it.

we're getting ready for a party here...i'm going to do my annual sushi party for chinese new year's this year, so i'm busy running around trying to whip this house into shape (since there's actually people other than punk kids and anarchists in attendance--people who might actually notice clutter). I'm looking forward to it. The last one was really fun and people have a way of thinking up sushi combinations I would never had dreamed of, that end up working their way into my repetoire for life.

Last night we had our house meeting and Giles wants to move in. I have a lot of reservations about it since he's sooo young, and he's never lived with anyone but his parents. This is not a good first apartment kind of place because we have all the rigors of home ownership to deal with here...and complications that come with living with lots of other people. He is an interesting kid though--he takes japanese in school, and shares other interests with me, but unfortunately I don't know him all that well since he's someone I only "see around", so I guess I'd rather see him hang out over here more before I consent to anything like that. We always end up making mistakes on who we have as house mates when we need money...and the thing is, we really don't need the money right now as much as people think...we need stability and able bodied folx.

Whew, that makes me sound like I have a busy life...when really I don't.

sushi party

2004 Jan 11

had a big ass sushi party here, the one we've been talking about for over a month.

it was intense...started prep about 7 hours in advance, and had everything out on the table ready to go right at 6:30...and the only person there was josh.

but then they came. had no idea how many people to expect because you can't get anyone in memphis to rsvp. so i planned on hearing from 8 people, and getting 40.

that may have been about right.

so there were insane numbers of people in the house, but luckily all the RIGHT people. ram and ky almost didn't come, but we can't have THAT.

the fairies were fabulous and bless their hearts for bringing such lovely food, and for dressing up, because i didn't want to be the only one.

everyone was such a big help, and it went off pretty well. somehow it turned into a dance party after hours, but hey that's cool.

never had such a big sushi party in my life. it was amazing. people are still telling me that it rocked. aww yeah.

a very normal sunday

2004 Jan 12

after all of yesterday's excitement, i took it easy and didn't do much at all.

smokey's been acting like a little shit. i think all the excitement got her all spazzin'. amiga got locked in the kitchen.

fire's been smoky all day. can't seem to get it to burn right. must be the wood, or maybe someone didn't clean out the ash...or something.

i love it when people are home.

sarah's going away to school next week. i'm soo sad, but yet happy for her at the same time. she'll have loads of fun once she gets over being homesick.

rom's leaving too, going back to philly. i'll miss him also. thank god ky's staying for awhile because to loose them both would take all the sunshine out of the sky. they're both precious cutebunnies.

this is the kind of stuff that reminds me that it's also time for me to move on too. i'm usually the one who does the leaving...it feels weird when it's the other way around.

weird encounters

2004 Jan 12

Had a hard time getting off on the right track today.

The weather was nice and distracting. A lot of things kept distracting me from getting on the bus. First time I walked over there, I missed it by 2 minutes. Saw this guy with a great hat on the way back home. Tried again 15 minutes later and somehow I missed it again.

I was bored and started writing the bus schedule on the telephone pole with a marker i had with me. heck that might come in handy...the guy with the cool hat came back around and wanted to chitchat. fine whatever. i would rather have done some reading but that's how it goes.

People were out-everywhere. i love these crazy warm winter days where it's 60. makes the cold days more bearable knowing they aren't inevitable.

hiked over to the commercial appeal to put in the ad, and decided i didn't want to walk all the way back to front street. i was real close to vance and walnut, but all these sketchy ass guys kept walking that way, and i figured i didn't want to be in that mix, especially since i had no idea when the bus would come next. i couldn't make up my mind, and ended up walking down pontotoc and danny thomas, and made it to the corner of vance, just in time to see the #4 and get on the #52 right behind it. Beautiful timing.

but after being out in the weather, i felt kinda weird and dizzy. the whole ride home i didn't feel right at all. by the time i got home i was barely functioning. i thought i was coming down with a cold. everyone was going to sarah's going away party but i just didn't feel up to it.

i'll miss the hell out of sarah and her hugs...she's one of my favorite people here, and now she's gone too.

don't think life's gonna be the same...

first day of class

2004 Jan 13

felt fine when i woke up this morning, albeit a bit tired. haven't gotten up before 10 in ages...i really wanted to go, so i went on in, even though i had called in sick the day before.

there was actually a sub there, which surprised me, but I stayed and got caught up with what everyone's been up to. david gave me a little present which was sweet. we had a good class, and d- read out of the newspaper again. i'm glad he's trying although i know it's super hard for him to do it. one thing i can't stress enough is that this stuff gets easier the more you practice.

went over to the co-op to shoot the shit with whoever was there. ended up being uele, so i talked to her for awhile. there's some youngish guy back in the dishroom and i wonder if that was njeri's new husband that she met over the internet...who else could he be? pretty mysterious. that's right, y'all my boss met some guy in a chat room, they met up in nashville last weekend and got married. pretty wild, although it's not like this is unheard of. that's how my cousin married his wife, and she turned out to be alright. =)

i felt like a whirlwind of energy after taking an afternoon nap, so i went outside and did tons of yard work since the weather was good again today.

boring AND weird

2004 Jan 28

not a whole lot has happened this month. i guess that in and of itself is probably for the best. i feel like a bike someone has left locked up outside for months, rusting into oblivion...will i be able to remember how to function if the time ever comes? and think...some people lead stressful lives. certainly wouldn't know what that's like anymore--that is, if you don't count being really broke as stressful. and actually it's not, when the bills aren't due.

so here i am doing basically nothing other than driving jb to the hardware store here and there, tutoring a girl once in awhile, and getting some stuff ready for uele's baby shower in a week. oh and i guess i work for njeri once or maybe twice a week. life's fairly dull.

but even then it manages to be rather...surreal.

the other day i went with jb to go to this job fair at the university, and on the way back, she wanted to drop off a hat that she made for this guy that works at whatever, the local headshop. so i get to pretend i'm a college student for an hour (that feels pretty weird when you've been out of school for years). so we stop in at this place, and the guy's there, so she gives him the hat, and he tries it on. it's too small. she offers to fix it, but he's like--whatever, don't worry about it. so then she says, okay fine, where's my money. and he acts like he never said he'd give her $20 to make him a hat a day in his life. (shit, even i remember THAT, and it was a long time ago and my memory's not THAT stellar). after some weirdness, he gives her $20 and we're on our way. or so we think...we only get a few blocks down the street, and he's pulls over in a car, and starts this whole insane rant about how we're racist, and therefore he doesn't want the hat, and some more about how we're racists, and some other bizarre stuff. i couldn't believe what i was hearing. i've heard saner stuff coming out of the mouths of schizos down by the park, and both of us were too in shock to even say anything. jb tried to give him his money back, and he wouldn't take it. he gets back in his car and drives off, so she just threw both the hat and the money down in the street and we left. ended up giving the $20 to a crackhead who was walking down the street. that was so weird- y'all, i've been doing civil rights work for like almost 10 years-so that had me feeling kinda indignant because I ain't done shit to him...until i realized that instead of being mad at him, i should feel sorry for the guy, if he's going around with such a big chip on his shoulder. must get tiresome being that paranoid about things.

other than shit like that (makes me think that leaving the house is highly overrated), things have been okay, just not any better than okay.

brian finally found a bus that he wanted, so we drove down to meridian mississippi a few days ago to pick it up. man, desoto's weird. it's where all the rich white people moved to, so they're all driving around in their SUV's and Hummers with all these chain stores and fast food restaurants...it's just bizarre because none of that stuff was even there 5 years ago, you can't even really tell you're in mississippi really, wa'n't nuthin' there 5 years ago but cotton fields an' shit. it's a huge contrast to the rest of the region.

we had to drive down 55 which is sooooo boring (if y'all ever been to new orleans, you've probably been down 55), but anyhow, we got to jackson and it's some of the worst friggin' driving i've ever seen, and i live in the world capital of bad driving or so i thought. sheyit, never mind! now i know where all the bad driving comes from. it's all these foo's from mississippi who move to memphis and bring their non-driving skillz up here. if you ever see a mississippi plate out there on the road, give them about 8 carlengths of room, cos folks, they're probably still figuring out how this whole driving thing workds *while driving*. gotta love it.

got to meridian way later than we should have. spent the day test driving and foolin' around with the bus, bought it, and brought it back. took forever though. i thought i'd be back in time to work the dinner shift, but no way, we didn't get back until midnight. too bad. i wanted to drive back up 51, but no luck, it was already dark by the time we got back to jackson, much less...

stove

2004 Jan 31

we finally got a new stove! that was one of our big projects for the year, and lo and behold, josh gave us the one from the felix house, so now we have a gas range with a working oven. took a few days to install though, and we had to keep getting parts, but jessica finally got it up and running this morning. so exciting! now i can bake! bake!

pretty cold today. cold last night too. we went to abyssinia and went home and watched karate kid. pretty cheezy...but as i recall, it was the shizznizzle back in the day.

boy am i tired of the cold. at least it's sunny. i was bored last night and i was looking at the weather in all these other places. it's warmer in antartica than it is here...granted it's summer there. wouldn't want to live in the yukon. vancouver is warmer than memphis. so is seattle.