EricNixon.net - Past Months

September 9, 2007

An update! I'm sure you've probably thought that I stopped blogging or some other such nonsense. In actuality, our internets tubes went down. When we moved into our apartment in downtown Lenox, we discovered there were three strong wireless internet signals that we could pick up and connect to. We figured, hey, why pay $50 a month for internet when we can get it for free, so we just logged onto one of the available connections.

A few months later, we had a terrible storm in the area and our favorite (strongest) internet connection went down and never came back. No biggie, there were two others we could use. Three or four months later, the next strongest connection decided to password protect their signal. Great. That left only one...which went down in late July. Hence, no updates since then. Actually, I don't even have a connection now, but I figured I could at least write and then post this when we move.

Yes, you heard that right, we're moving. Where? To a church! A friend of ours owns a recently closed church in the area and is converting the large rectory building into condos. In the meantime, we're going to rent one of the units which is mutually beneficial to both parties involved.

More big news...I have a new job! I have left Jiminy Peak and am starting tomorrow at my new place of employment. As I don't like to talk about my current work on my personal website, I'll say that I'm the Assistant Innkeeper of the super-awesome, "granny-chic" hotel in the area. If you want more information, please refer to the book, Hip Hotels. I am extremely excited as the hotel is the perfect fit for me and mirrors my personality exceptionally well.

Thursday was my last day at Jiminy Peak, so that night Kari and I went to dinner at a new restaurant in town (Frankie's - the food was very good, but the portions were small and the price was pretty high), and then we went to Rumpy's Tavern (where we got married for the second time four months ago). We were going to meet some of Kari's former co-workers from Shakespeare & Co. as they were (ironically) celebrating the last day of our friend, Margit, who is heading to the Norman Rockwell Museum on Monday (when I start my new job as well). We got to Rumpy's early, so we were picking out cool records to listen to (it was 45 night), when all of a sudden, in walks two co-workers I was friends with at Jiminy! It was a great surprise that Kari had arranged. A little while later, the S & Co. people showed up and a good time was had by all (especially me and Margit).

Have you ever been to the Restore? It's a neat, Home Depot-ish store in Springfield, Massachusetts that takes reclaimed home parts (windows, doors, wood, lights, bowling alleys, etc) and sells them for a super good price. Even though it was an hour drive for us, it's so worth it for us to drive there to get home supplies than to go to the Home Depot that's 15 minutes away because of the cost savings, as well as knowing that you're helping the environment by recycling building materials. I bought a neat old door that I'm going to turn into my new desk.

For the first time in three years I'm sitting on a stack of upcoming concert tickets, and I couldn't be happier. For Kari's birthday I got us tickets to see two of her favorite artists/bands: Billy Bragg and They Might Be Giants. Amazingly, they're both playing at the Calvin Theater in Northampton the same week (just two days apart), so I've planned two very different trips to one of our favorite cities in Massachusetts. The first, I've labeled "Worker's Playtime" (after a Billy Bragg cd), we're going to have a fun afternoon in and a dinner picnic in Look Park in Northampton, see the show, and finally return home. The second is called, "Long Tall Weekend" and involves a day of shopping, dinner, and then the show, followed by staying overnight in the area, and then a fun Sunday morning getting fresh cider donuts at Atkins Farm, and stops to Trader Joes and Wild Oats. That'll be a very good week. In addition to those two shows, we're also going to see Yo La Tengo play an acoustic/storytellers show at Mass MoCA in early November.

Wow. I'm listening to the song "Protection" by Massive Attack. It's one of those songs, that for me, when I listen to it, it brings me back to when I first heard it. It makes me think of those nights in Paris we spent at L'Absinthe Café where the only light was that which either reflected off the street from the street lights, or from the candles on each table. When we sat down there was this mellow sultry trip-hop playing in the background that seemed to complete the scene. The server and I had an agreement each night where he would only speak in English and I would only speak in French, so we could practice each other's language. It was a wonderful reciprocal relationship the two of us had for those couple of weeks. The full-length mostly from floor to ceiling length windows to the street were open and letting in the cool midnight air. The wedge-shaped bar was full, but you'd never really know it from the darkness of the place, or the surrounding French conversation, which seemed muted by the music, which set the pervasive tone of the place. One thing I still find amazing is the memory-retentive properties that music has. Wow.

Over the past few days I've been picking up, dusting off, and playing two of my guitars more than I have in the past year. I am convinced that if I had a band it would sound like a weird hybrid-ish combination of Minus The Bear and Yo La Tengo. Not because they're my favorite bands or anything, but because that's kind of how I seem to play.

I've also been busy Geocaching, and working on some paint-by-numbers (I'll post a picture of the ballerina painting I'm working on when I'm done).

Tonight we popped open a bottle of Ommegang Three Philosophers, that I've been ageing for a few months (as well as the bottle of Smuttynose Maibock), in celebration of a brand new book idea that I wrote the synopsis for this evening. Kari read the several page overview and said it sounded great (which is good, because if it was crap, she would definitely tell me it sucked and then make fun of it incessantly over the next few weeks - this hasn't happened yet, so I must be in the clear). This new book won't replace 2492 as my main project, but it was something that was so good I had to spend a night writing down all of the ideas so I can pick up and run with it when the 2492 series is done (which is looking to be about four books right now). Speaking of 2492, I haven't written anything on it in the past month. Why? I've been pretty busy with the whole new job/new apartment thing lately to give it the time it needs. One we move in a couple of weeks, the writing will resume in earnest and I hope to crank out that book soon after. The street we're moving to is named after one of the Berkshire's most famous authors, so that's (hopefully) gotta help in some weird way.

What I'm listening to right now - Modest Mouse - Florida