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June 26,
2008
This past Tuesday, a group of us
went out to the
Pittsfield Brew Works for their wildly popular Trivia Night.
Kari, Laurie, John, and Alexandra went to Trivia Night last time
(two weeks ago) and they placed sixth or so out of the 15 teams.
Kindly note that I was not there.
This week, I went with them and
surprise, surprise, we were the top team. Not that I'm a
braggy braggart or anything, but hey, we beat like 60-something
people on all of the other teams. Some of the answers we
missed include (try and guess the questions):
- Warren G. Harding
- Chrysler
- Alex Rodriguez
- Henry VII
I think that was all we missed
because we were so awesome.
Afterwards, I thought that I
didn't want to go again because hey, we did it, we won, and we're
done. Then again, it was way too fun to not do again, so
we'll be back. Plus we won a growler of beer, a shirt, and
$25 (which helped with the bar tab).
I've discovered Facebook.
Before you say, "Eric's a lame-o," please hear me out. I
always thought that you had to be in college to join, so I never
bothered with the site. Then, last week, I saw Kari on it
and I was all like, "Uhh, don't you have to be in college to use
that?" and she replied, "No, sucka!" While I hardly use my
MySpace account to begin with, I was really entranced by the
ability to post a huge playlist of songs on a Facebook page.
I joined and started setting up the song list...and was surprised
to find out that you can post the same song list to MySpace as
well. I had always thought that you were stuck with just a
single song on your profile, so it opened a whole new world for
me. While my Facebook page is rather lacking, it has the
best soundtrack ever heard on
teh internets.
Holy crap, I've found my favorite
band of the year. Last year it was
Oppenheimer. This year:
Black Kids.
Amazing, catchy stuff. Oh speaking of music, this has been a
dry year for concerts, but we're currently sitting on tickets to
see not only
The New
Pornographers but also
Ira Glass, so
things are looking up.
What I'm listening to right now:
Black Kids -
Love Me
Already
June 12,
2008
Man, I love my iMac. It almost
makes me want to put the Mac sticker it came with on my car.
Well, maybe not, but along the same lines, I’m thinking of taking
the Strong Bad & Homestarrunner window clings off of my car. I
still like
Homestarrunner, but I was really huge into it
four years ago...now, not so much.
Thinking of bumper stickers and
other things you put on your car makes me wonder about people who
get tattoos. Personally, I can’t think of any one single thing
that I like, love, obsess over to the point where I want to slap a
“Hey! Look at me! I lurv me some ...(insert bumper sticker with
a band name, witty quote, or what-have-you here),” much less the
permanent inking of a tattoo into my skin for the rest of my
life. I wonder if this guy will have any regrets in 20 years.
Well, maybe
NPR...I
do lurv me some NPR.
Last week Kari and I got a friend
to sit for the pups (and cat), and we headed out to Boston. Our
first stop was actually a lot out of our way, but Kari had an
appointment at a local (national) publishing company that was
interested in her book idea. From that meeting, she got some
excellent feedback and the direction of her book idea changed
quite a bit (for the better in previously unexpected ways).
Since we started our day in North
Adams, we took Route 2 to Boston. Ah, the
Mohawk Trail.
It’s been over 10 years since I’ve last (and first) driven along
it, and wow, it’s such a beautifully scenic road. Unfortunately,
the extreme fogginess of the day made some place that’s known for
being super foggy say “Woah! That’s some crazy fog there. I
can’t possibly compete with that,” and slink away to reveal a
perfectly sunny day. We drove around the
Hairpin Turn
and saw...nothing (but
gray). We parked at the pull-off that proudly championed
its “65-mile
view”, and saw...30-feet (and then gray). We saw a
sign that said, “Elk
Statue, over here --->” and we saw...gray. Gray,
gray, gray. After we descended the other side of the mountain,
the gray went away (mostly), and we were treated to beautiful
views of thick patches of trees closely hugging the winding
roadway. It was amazing.
And long. Oh my goodness it took
forever, but that could be because we stopped every mile or so to
look for a Geocache. Some person hid a whole metric ass-ton of
caches along the Mohawk Trail. We found eight...or rather, I
found eight, while Kari read a book in the car. Except for the
time when I went
climbing under a
bridge. That time she got out of the car to make
sure I didn’t slip on the wet rocks and fall into the river below,
or anything.
We stopped for lunch in the
wonderful little town of
Shelburne Falls.
Actually, everything said it was the town of
Buckland,
but I think “Shelburne Falls” is the fancy pen name of the town in
order to attract more tourists. I wish we could have spent more
time there (to find the
Earthcache),
but we had to get going to get to Boston on time (this was a
work-related function, after all).
A few hours later, we checked
into the
Coply Plaza Hotel. The first thing I thought
was, “Wow, this place looks a lot like the
Willard
InterContinental in Washington DC,” but that’s
because it turns out that it was designed by the same architect
(yes, career hotel people geek out over things like this). We
walked around for a bit and then went to
Symphony Hall
(supposedly, it’s the 3rd best concert hall in the world) for a
Boston Pops performance. Apart from Governor Patrick reading
“Casey at the Bat”, the best part was when the Pops played “I’m
Shipping Up To Boston” by the
Dropkick Murphys. After the show, we hung
out at a very cool private party in the Oak Room.
Otherwise, I’ve been writing.
Well, actually, I’ve been doing more editing on chapters I’ve
already written in my book than real writing, but who’s counting.
Aw heck, I am. I’m up to about 200 pages now.
What I’m listening to right now:
Muse -
Map of the
Problematique
May 21, 2008
A month goes by, and things
happen.
-
April 30. My birthday. My 34th birthday.
At this point the numbers seem irrelevant as I never really feel
any different than I did a year, or a decade, ago. I also have a
weird thing where a couple of months before my birthday I, for
some reason, start accidently thinking I’m older than I am when
filling out forms or such things. Back in January: How old am
I? 34. Wait, no. I’m 33. Maybe that’s what it never bothers me
when I turn a year older. The day itself was fine; it was
supposed to rain, but it ended up being a beautiful day, so I went
Geocaching, and then Kari and I went to the Dakota for diner. On
a sad note, this was also the last day of Kari’s (favorite) job
(of all-time), as her company went out of business. She is quite
heartbroken.
-
May 5. Our 1st anniversary. Kari’s sister doxie-sat for
us and we spent the night at the
Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge in a beautiful,
one-bedroom suite, had an amazing dinner in the Tavern, and had an
all-around great time. You haven’t lived until you’ve taken a
shower with four shower heads all aimed at you. Incredible.
-
May 8.
Kari’s mom came up to visit from
South Carolina. We spent the day walking
around Northampton and Amherst. On the way home, we almost
got killed by a deer running across the road right in front of us.
I braked just in time and we missed hitting it by inches (or
less!). The next day, Kari’s sister, Baxter, and Charlie
Parker head up to Kari’s grandmother’s house in Benson, Vermont.
Zoe and I spend time watching movies, and eating food, that Kari
won’t like. I spend a lot of time writing in 2492.
-
May 14. I head up to Vermont early early in the morning.
I intended to find a plethora of Geocaches along the way, but I
was running a little later than I had planned, so I skip them. I
secretly mentally concede to Kari’s constant chatter that the
scenery in Vermont is better than in the Berkshires. When I see
her, I deny this vehemently. We drive up to Burlington, and hit a
a total of eight caches along the way, which include stops to the
second oldest covered bridge in Vermont, the site of a finding of
an ancient Beluga whale skeleton, a bandstand in the beautiful
town of Vergennes, and a few other random stops. After
Burlington, we swing down to Montpelier, where we see the places
Kari lived and worked, and have dinner at a culinary school’s
restaurant, before heading back to Benson. We also spend a lot of
time watching Baxter, Charlie Parker, and Janis’ dog, Puppy, run
around like crazy leashless dogs in the backyard.
-
May 15. Kari’s grandmother, mother, sister, and Kari take
me on a tour of all the family sites, homes, etc, in Western
Vermont. After the tour, I pack up the puppies and head back home
where I spend the rest of the night writing.
-
May 19. Kari and I run a bunch of errands, and go see a
movie (Iron Man - it was very good, but I was expecting
better).
What I’m listening to right now:
Death Cab for Cutie -
Title and Registration
April
25, 2008
It's amazing how dusty a computer
gets when you don't use it. The iMac? Not a spot of
dust on it. My old pc? A whole foot of dust.
Spring has finally sprung in the
Berkshires. It was kind of weird though; on Tuesday, yeah,
there were buds on the trees, but no leaves. Then, on
Wednesday, *pow* leaves everywhere.
The temperature has decided to skip spring and go straight to
early summer, with most days being in the 80's, and one day last
weekend almost hitting 90.
With the good weather, comes good
Geocaching. Over the past week or so, I found my 100th cache
(yay me!), and the other day, Kari and I were the first to find
two new caches hidden in the trails behind Berkshire Community
College. The first to finds (FTF) were a bit of luck.
We both had the day off, and I happened to be on the Geocaching
site early in the morning, when I saw two caches with a colorful
"New!" banner beside them. I clicked and saw that no one had
found them yet, so we packed up the dogs and headed out to BCC.
As we were driving away, we saw a car pulling into their lot
(Monday was a holiday, so no students), which turned out to be
another Geocacher. From reading the logs, two other parties
of cachers bumped into the people we saw as we were leaving, so we
were lucky in finding the caches just in time.
Ten days ago,
Ren
listed my site as one of ten excellent blogs and why she loves
them. As for her request to have
Baxter and
Charlie Parker go and live with her, I'm sorry, but they're
just too damn cute to have out on permanent loan. I'm sure a
visit could be arranged. And besides, they don't want to
have the paparazzi constantly following and chasing them around
everywhere they go...because that would totally happen.
What I'm listening to right now:
Modest Mouse -
Spitting Venom
April
10, 2008
Eh, what's a month in the grand
scheme of things?
The lack of updates (and
pictures) have a good reason behind them...not that anyone likes
to read a blog where the person says something like, "Wow, it's
been a whole week since I wrote last, blah, blah, blah...", but
that's kinda what I'm doing here (but let's pretend I'm not).
So yeah, I haven't been one to be
a braggart or anything, but for a while now we've been expecting
one very special delivery...and it finally arrived! (which
also explains the lack of updates on Kari's site as well)
I can't tell you the joy we felt
when we first saw our brand new iMac. Yes, we made the
switch (Kari just kicked me and said something crazy about her
always being a Mac person and I was the holdup, but whatever.
It's my site so I write the history here)! I thought it
would be so hard to use a Mac, but wow, it's actually very easy
and rather intuitive. My fascination with it makes me
actually understand why the Mac fanatics act the way they do.
I think if it wasn't for the fact that I use Microsoft FrontPage
to make this site, I wouldn't have a reason to turn on my old (PC)
computer (which is why I haven't updated the site - we have
Dreamweaver, but I haven't had a chance to sit down and learn it
yet). But yeah, the iMac is a million times better than any
PC. I love love love it.
I did have one huge issue though.
When I plugged my external hard drive up to the iMac, to copy all
of my music and my photographs, something happened. Now
neither computer (Mac or PC) recognize the hard drive. So,
unless I can somehow figure out how to get a computer to read it
again, the tens of thousands of photographs I've taken over the
past four years, and the 7,000+ songs I've been amassing will be
lost. The super shitty thing is that I was just
about to pitch an idea for a
photo book to a publisher, and now I can't access the pictures
(insert YYEEEAAAARRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!
here). On a slightly consoling note, we've copied about
2,000+ songs into the iMac via a big ol' box of cds we found in
storage, so that helps (not really...but kinda).
Other things of note lately:
Kari came up with a killer book idea (that we can add to the giant
stack of things to write), I thought of an amazing invention last
night (so stupidly simple that it has to have been invented, but
I'm afraid to try to look it up because I'll be sad if it has been
invented [but I don't think it has]), and with the advent of
Spring, we've been Geocaching like nouns that are hugely attracted
to things that nouns like (a lot).
The only one of the above things
that I'll go into depth here is the Geocaching. Wow, Spring
has sprung big time and the caching has been great. We're up
to 95 finds so far, and the two that we hid at Tanglewood are
quite popular with local cachers. One thing that I've
learned as of late is that if a sign says "Road closed", it's
probably for a darn good reason and I need to reconsider the, "P'shaw!
I've got an SUV (that possibly needs new struts or something
judging by the creaky sounds I hear when I go around corners, but
an SUV nonetheless)," and mentality that makes me impervious to
things like washed out roads. Also, I need to heed warnings
in the comment sections of caches like, "Warning! A 2.5-foot
long snake attacked me here!". Little things like that.
Apart from some minor setbacks, the caching things has been going
very well, thank you.
Things I love: Watching our
dogs tussle. There are few things cuter than two
mini-dachshunds standing up, pawing each other with their stubby
little legs, and "fighting" over who gets to play with the
hedgehog toy. I need a video camera to record this.
I'm very appreciative that I can see this show daily.
What I'm listening to right now:
Neko Case -
Hold On, Hold On
March
18, 2008
I was shocked
to read today that Spice
has closed permanently. Not only was it a great restaurant,
but they always seemed busy. It was also especially super
cool because it's located at the end of my street. Man, I
hope Burger doesn't
close as well. Their eggplant fries are really, really,
really good.
If you had a cover band, what
songs would you play? This is something I think to myself
every once in a while when I think secret thoughts and imagine
myself not only up on a stage in front of an audience, but also
somehow gifted with the ability to play the
guitar. Tonight Kari was listening to some Elvis
Costello and said, "For years I thought that if I was ever in a
cover band, this would definitely be a song I would play." I
thought this was interesting since I thought I was the only one
with this secret fantasy (although, it's not like I sit around all
day thinking of how awesome my cover band would be or anything).
I like how it's light out later
in the day. After work, I drove to Tanglewood and hid two
more Geocaches (a regular, and a multi-cache), bringing my total
there to three.
What I'm listening to right now:
They Might Be Giants - I'm Impressed
March
13, 2008
Last Thursday Kari and I had the
day off together so we went out to Northampton. We checked
out the
Leonard Nimoy exhibit at the
R. Michelson Gallery.
Later on, we looked for a few caches. Hmm...for some reason,
this sounded a lot more interesting in my head than it really is.
This Thursday (today), woo hoo,
now today was a cool day. We got up late (wow!), and headed
over to Cafe Reva for a breakfasty lunch (yum!). Kari had
breakfast whereas I had lunch. A friend wrote an article for
Berkshire Living where she said it was her favorite place for
breakfast in the Berkshires. Yeah, it looks kinda dive-y on
the outside, but wow, the food is amazing.
We ran some errands (eh) and then
went back home to pick up Baxter & Charlie (woof!)and then brought
them to Tanglewood. We hid our first Geocache (a
letterbox hybrid) somewhere on the grounds, and then scouted
out other places to hide them. Then we let the dogs run all
crazy across the lawns. Many sticks were chased and when we
got home the two little dogs curled up and slept for the rest of
the afternoon.
What I'm listening to right now:
John Linnell
- The Songs Of
The 50 States
March
12, 2008
If there were romance books for dachshunds, Charlie Parker would
be a Fabio-like cover model for all of them; his wild hair blowing
so carefree in the wind as he gazes lustfully into the eyes of a
cute reddish mini-doxie, all the while telling her how "dapplelicious"
she is. Damn. No wonder he's fathered three litters of
puppies.
I had today off from work, so I
did something I've been meaning to do for a while: Have a
museum day. Unfortunately, most of the museums I've been
wanting to go to are up in the northern part of the county, where
I work, so typically on days off I rarely venture up that way.
Lucky for me I had a meeting a work, so I had a reason to be up in
that neck of the woods.
It's days like this when I really
appreciate living here. It snowed like crazy; the oversized
flakes falling like some kind of new kind of sugar coated and
fried breakfast cereal pouring from a family-sized box into the
bottomless bowl of a wide-eyed child. I took it all in and
wanted more...which the mountains of New England were happy to
provide.
I started out my two-museum
extravaganza at Mass MoCA.
I like being a member because I can just wander in whenever the
mood strikes me. Some really neat stuff in there. I'm
liking the Spencer Finch stuff more and more each time I go.
My next (and last) stop on my
two-museum extravaganza was The
Clark. I'm becoming a big fan of
John
Singer Sargent; they've got oodles and poodles of paintings by
him and I like them all.
In other news, Kari and I came up
with a great idea for a book. Sadly, it'll be written under
wiley and elusive pseudonyms, but feel free to think that some
random book you pick up was written by us. Go ahead, we
won't mind.
What I'm listening to right now:
Stereolab -
Peng! 33
March 5,
2008
Lately, we've been getting lots
of cool new music from a wonderfully free source. Nope, not
teh interweb tubes. Think lo-fi. Think quietly.
Think library card. Ok, since you haven't figured it out
yet, I'll tell you...the library.
Yup, Kari and I have been getting
all of the cds that we've always wanted, which, for the past few
years, have been living a dusty, ignored life on our Amazon wish
lists, thanks to the wonderful library system in Massachusetts.
(As a side note, I am still perplexed as to why the state tourism
board didn't pick my entry a couple of years ago when they were
looking for a new slogan for their ad campaigns. I thought
"Massachusetts: Wicked pissah" [or, the more family friendly
variant, "Massachusetts: Wicked awesome"] was short,
succinct, brimmed with local flavor, funny in that unexpected
sorta way, and all the while extolled about how cool it is here.
Bastards.) You go to the library system's website and look
up cds, and as long as at least one of the 300+ towns in the state
has it, they'll send it to your local library. Cool.
It's great and all, but we have
one problem with it. Kari's the one who does it all, so the
music we're getting leans heavily towards her (Note: Kari,
please don't read the second to the next word) somewhat crappy
taste in music. Once in a while she'll feel sorry for me and
will order a cd I want, but it's pretty sporadic.
You're probably thinking, "Hey,
why don't you just order what cds you want?" That's a great
idea, but sadly, I don't go to the library. Why?
Because of a book I took out a decade ago...and kinda sorta maybe
never returned.
Big deal, I have an overdue book,
right? I should just pay the fine and be on my merry way to
oodles and poodles of free music. The trouble is that I kind
of feel especially guilty about it because when I was in the Boy
Scouts, the big service project I did to become an Eagle Scout was
to organize a big amnesty day for the local library to get
delinquent book borrowers to return their overdue books. It
was so successful that hundreds of millions of overdue books (plus
or minus hundreds of millions) came flooding in and the local
library was saved. Now I find myself playing the role of the
delinquent, and while it's one that I abhor, there's not much I
can do about it.
The thing is, I found the book
about a year and a half ago. I was packing up our things as
we were getting ready to leave Alabama and I came across the book
in question. I laughed for a while since I had completely
forgotten that I had it, and I vowed that I would secretly drop it
in a book return bin, in the dark of night, when I got back to the
Berkshires. At the time I thought, hey, I forgot about it,
so they must have as well. After the better part of a
decade, who can remember something little and insignificant like
that?
The library does. They
totally remember. When we moved back, we found out that you
can get free admission to local museums by "checking out" a museum
pass from the library. I had a day off and wanted to go
museum hopping so I skipped on over to the local library...where
my plans for the day were dashed. I was told that I took out
a book from the Pittsfield library back in 1998 and had never
returned it. So, until I brought it back, I couldn't get a
library card, and therefore, no museum pass. Frowny face.
Because most of out stuff was in
storage, finding the book has been difficult. In fact, I
still haven't found it. Yes, I could just pay the fine, but
I'd feel much better with myself if I returned the actual book.
The worst part of it all is the
title of the book in question. If it wasn't for the damn
title I'd feel fine about paying the fine, getting a library card,
and moving on with my new music-filled life. You have to
keep in mind that ten years ago I was a much different person.
I was muchly introverted and a whole lot less cool than the
veritable cauldron of (wicked) awesomeness who is typing this for
you today. The title was (are you focusing on how awesome I
am now? Eric = really really cool guy now):
Talking With Confidence For The Painfully Shy.
God, I was such a weenie. I
don't even remember why I got the book to begin with, but I think
I opened it once when I was getting an oil change, and even then I
spent more time trying to hide the cover of the book than actually
reading it.
So yeah, with each box of stuff
we unpack in our new place, it brings me closer to finding the
book...which will bring me redemption, a library card, and all the
(good) free music I can handle.
What I'm listening to right now:
Dear
Leader -
All I Ever Wanted Was Tonight
March 4,
2008
Please throw Baxter a snowball
the next time you see him. He will love you forever for it.
What I'm listening to right now:
Oppenheimer -
Saturday
Looks Bad To Me
February
11, 2008
Writing.
Lots.
(obviously not here)
Can't stop.
What I'm listening to right now:
Kimya Dawson
- Tire
Swing
February
3, 2008
True story - this really happened
to me today:
I was sitting in the drive-thru
at a local McDonald's this afternoon when I had an epiphany.
An honest-to-goodness epiphany. For the briefest shadow of a
moment, the answer to life, in its most pure and simple form was
beginning to dawn across my conscious mind. I wasn't aware
of what the answer was yet, but the strange sense of peace was
rushing over me as my eyes began to shift from lazily looking at,
to intently looking through the discount mattress store in the
mostly empty strip mall across the street. What my eyes were
looking at didn't matter, nothing else mattered because I was
becoming aware of the big answer to why--
"Here's your food," the sketchy
teenager said as he handed the bag to me through the window.
My mind was doing a Wait, what?
thing as I came back to reality and habitually took the white bag,
and the soda from him.
As my mind was grappling with
trying to re-focus and bring myself back to the epiphanal moment,
the drive-thru kid looked at me with a much-too-large, almost
knowing, smile, accompanied with a bobbing head that seemed to
say, Aww, yeah, and he
said just the one word, "Enjoy!" I swear I heard him
laughing as I instinctively pulled away.
I pushed aside the
earth-shattering thought for a moment. What the hell
was that about? Did
he do something to my food?
Man, that's why you should never go to a fast food place during
non-meal times on a weekend; they're all staffed by kids, and when
they're bored, weird shit goes into the food.
I still ate it, of course, but
that's not to say I didn't closely inspect each bite...'cause I
totally did.
As for the epiphany on
the meaning of life, mark my words, you might have slipped
away this time, but I'll get you yet. Oh yes, you will be
mine...sure enough as someday (I may be really old and near my
deathbed, but my God, someday...)
I will do this.
In other news,
the doxies are having an epic battle over the hedgehog squeak
toy.
What I'm listening to right now:
Minus The Bear -
Thanks For The Killer Game Of Crisco Twister
January
29, 2008
It's been a while since I've last
written, I know. I've even gotten email from people asking
why I haven't updated. Although, one thing I have noticed is
that when I don't update on a regular basis, for some strange
reason, I get a lot more traffic to my site. Why? I
dunno.
What's been going on? Well,
for starters, we moved. Yup, from our temporary digs in the
attic (a finished attic, I
should add; we weren't living amongst the rafters and squirrels,
or anything) to our (still under construction) apartment on the
1st floor. So what if the temporary housing thing that was
supposed to last two weeks turned into four months, at least we're
in our (mostly completed) apartment. We moved down last week
and have been unpacking and starting to get settled, which is
nice.
I've also been writing. A
lot. In the past week alone, I've written over 30 pages on
the book...all of which has been written at the new Panera Bread
in Pittsfield. A little weird since I live on a street named
after the Berkshires' most famous writer resident, so you'd think
I'd find more inspiration here, or something. I normally
would, but we can't yet get into the room that will become our
office (under construction). As it is, my computer is
balancing precariously on a tv tray, surrounded by piles of boxes
and dachshunds begging for attention. So, to find a more
neutral place to focus and write, I've been taking Kari's laptop
to Panera every day, and happily playing the role of that weird
guy who sits at a back table, pounding away on a keyboard for
hours (actually, about two hours, and then the laptop's battery
dies, which is fine since it gives me a structured amount of time
within which to write in). It's been working out really well
for me, so hey.
I went and got a haircut today.
Normally this is a whatevery kind of thing, but I'm
particular about haircuts for
some reason. I will only go to a place that is:
Rule A) Not busy - I won't wait
more than 10 minutes, so if there is more than one person waiting,
out I go in search of another barbershop.
Rule B) Quick - If the haircut
takes more than 10 to 15 minutes, I don't go back.
Rule C) A minimal of talking - I
don't follow sports of any kind, I don't hunt, fish, or follow
Nascar, or any "manly" activities like that, so I try to avoid
places where the barber says things that confuse me like: "So,
what'd ya think of the draft pick-OT-1st & down-flyball-penalty
kick, tag team, of the 9th inning-wildcard-wicket shot in last
night's game?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I don't follow
sports at all."
Then comes the ten minutes of
awkward silence punctuated only by the occasional snip snip
as I become increasingly fearful that he is going to let his
frustration at getting a "bad" (non-sports-liking) customer
get in the way of doing a good
and professional job on my hair, while he strains his ears and
jealously listens to the fishing story being told by a customer a
few chairs down, "...it t'aint surprised me that I dun caught that
pilot whale; it was my best lure, after all..."
Kinda of funny, since I had a
similar situation happen today.
I went back to a barber shop that
I had stumbled onto about a month and a half ago. The sign
out front said they had three barbers, but when I was in the
chair, getting my hair cut, I figured out that one of the three
had recently died, leaving only two barbers. The place is
tiny, has ugly wood paneling, and several severed deer heads,
which added a cheery touch to the decor. Despite that, I got
in immediately, got a fast cut, and was out the door in 10 minutes
for not a lot of money. Cool. I planned on coming
back.
Today I went back and found only
one barber, sitting on a bench yucking it up over an issue of Mad
magazine. The sign out front still said three barbers, and
the left-most station was still spotless, so I assumed the other
barber was at lunch or something.
I saw down, told him what I
wanted, while he put the apron-thing on me, and then he asks:
"So, you going to any Superbowl parties this weekend?"
I laughed haughtily. "Am I?
Goodness, where to begin! First I'm going to the pre-game
tailgating party at The End Zone, followed by the kickoff
celebration at Mike's house, and then I'm off to the legendary 1st
quarter bash at Rogers, after which I jump into my plane and enjoy
a reflective 2nd quarter from the air, and then on to the raucous
half-time hoedown in Manatoba, and then..."
Oh the things I wish I had the
balls to say sometimes. "Nope. I don't follow
football."
Snip...snip...snip...
After 10 minutes of awkward
silence went by, he took off the apron and said I was all set.
As I got up I realized that not only did the barber not give me
the hot lather neck shave that he did last time, but he had put
some weird gunk in my hair that has since made it slicked back,
brittle, and crusty.
Great, now I'm going to have to
find a new barbershop, and that won't be easy since I've been to a
bunch in town already. When I lived in the Deep South, it
seemed like the only types of stores they had (for anything) were
chain stores, and the same went for hair-cutting places.
After trying a few out, I settled on Supercuts. Was I
thrilled to go there, no, but they consistently satisfied my
no-wait, quick-cut, and no-talk rules. In the fall of 2006,
when we moved to the Berkshires, I continued going to Supercuts
since there was a brand new one in Pittsfield that no one went to,
so I got in and out of there super fast.
Then, a few days before my
wedding, I went to Supercuts. I unfortunately trusted one of
the most important and photographed haircuts of my life to a place
that seemingly rotates its entire staff between visits. When
I went in, I was super specific about how I wanted each area of my
hair to look, which completely fell on deaf ears as the woman
chopped pretty much everything off. While I know my hairline
is every so slightly receding, the hairdresser handedly gave me a
preview of how I'll look in 15 to 20 years by making me look
mostly bald.
A month and a half later, when I
next needed my hair cut I decided to go to a real barber shop.
It happened to be a Monday, and most barber shops tend to be
closed on Mondays, but I came across one that had a big painted
window that read, "Open 7 dayz." (picture a big-ass crown perched
atop an oversized number 7). I was a little unnerved by the
groups of thug-like gangsta-wanna be's hanging out on the corner
by the barber shop, but I figured they were just grouping up
before going to a quilting bee or something, so I paid them no
mind. I went in and was pleasantly surprised to see a big,
bright, clean, barber shop with six barbers happily cutting away.
There were a few guys waiting, but with six barbers, the line went
down pretty quickly.
When it was my turn, I got this
shorter, muscle-y guy, covered in tattoos and piercings. He
looked like he would be more at home starring in a Discovery
channel show about building custom motorcycles than cutting hair,
but whatever. Unfortunately, he spent more time either on
his cell phone, or excusing himself and hanging out with friends
in front of the barber shop, than cutting my hair. When he
was doing his job, every so often he would mutter such witticisms
as, "I wish they'd play some fuckin' metal in here," and "I hate
this fuckin' music." Later, he asked me, "So, what kind of
metal do you like?"
"Oh, I'm wicked hardcore into
platinum because of its malleable and ductile qualities."
How come I think of funny things
to say a minute too late? I actually said: "I'm not really
into metal that much."
Snip...snip...snip...
What should have been a ten
minute haircut then became a very awkward 45-minute haircut as the
barber then spent more time outside, or on his cell phone.
30 seconds after I said that I was mentally kicking myself
thinking, Why didn't you tell him you like Iron Maiden?
Everyone who likes heavy metal loves Iron Maiden. He would
have thought you were cool, cut your hair, and you could be out of
here quickly. It's too late to mention it now and not seem
like a dork.
When I lived in Pittsfield after
college, I went to a great barber shop run by two Korean War vets.
I'd be in and out with a perfect haircut in 10 minutes for only
$10. Every time I've driven past their place in the last few
months, the parking lot is always full. I'm guessing I need
to either start thinking about granting waivers for Rule A up
above, or I need to start looking out for more barber shops.
Maybe I should try a more punny hair-cutting place with a name
like "The Hair Port", "Shear Madness", or "Hair You Are." I
dunno.
Then again, I really don't need
to worry about it for another month and a half.
What I'm listening to right now:
Rilo Kiley -
Dreamworld
January
16, 2008
For Christmas Kari got me
these Sam Adams glasses.
You're probably "Whatever," about them, but take a moment to
clicky on the link. An incredible amount of research has
gone into making these the most state-of-the-art beer glasses
ever.
Tonight we used two of these
glasses (because we're still in our temporary digs and don't have
access to hoidy-toidy things like "glasses," much less the proper
stemware that drinking good beer calls for. We also cracked
open our bottle of
Ommegang's
Ommegeddon beer that we've been ageing for seven months.
Official rating:
Yum!
Today Kari and I went to the
Norman Rockwell Museum and had a good time. Sometime we need
to go back and do some research in the library there to find the
painting her father was in (when he was a kid in his baseball
uniform).
The other day I was insanely
excited to see that one of Kari's favorite bands, the Magnetic
Fields, is not only releasing a new cd, but is going on a small
warm-up tour in preparation for a big national tour and spending
the first two nights in nearby Northampton at the Iron Horse.
Kari isn't big on concerts, so any opportunity I have to get her
(me...I mean us) to more
shows, the better. Sadly, the show sold out immediately, but
at least there's still a chance since the venue sells a limited
number of tickets at the door on the day of the show. To
hear any songs off of
this cd
live would be a wonderful thing. Speaking of which, one of
the mix cds I made for work includes the song, "The
Luckiest Guy On The Lower East Side," and one guest was rabid
in knowing more about the song and the band ("I heard this song
last night that went like this...and I need to know who plays it
and where I can get it." That's the fourth time in the past
couple of weeks that a guest has commented on the music I've
played in the lobby. One couple spent several hours sipping
drinks by the fireplace just because the song selection I chose
was like "The soundtrack to our lives." It's cool to have
people re-affirmation how good your tastes in things are like that
once in a while.
What I'm listening to right now:
Kate Nash -
Foundations
January
12, 2008
With all of this free time
available to me this weekend, whilest Kari is in Chicago, I've
been making the most of it writing like a crazy person. I
came up with a great idea for a short story and I've been running
with that. I've also been working on a huge chapter in
2492 that I've been tinkering on
the fringes of for the better part of a year.
Yesterday I went to the movies
and saw Juno.
I
have to say that I was a little disappointed with this movie as I
was expecting a | | |
