please stand by

temporary hiatus due to lots of things. will resume after labor day-ish. ta-ta for now.

heading for the hills

off to the lake house (somebody else's of course, i don't even have a non-lake house) for saturday to do some navel-gazing/writing/drinking and watch mike compete at something or other. for whatever reason, the stress of earlier in the week has faded with my head cold, and even though i still have nowhere to live and a relatively meager job, i'm in high spirits.

and it's about goddamn time, too. i hate being stressed and i deal with it pretty badly. i get really pissed off at nothing and easily frustrated and bored. it's awful and all it really takes to snap me out of it is nice weather, a little mental distance, and maybe a drink or two. the trouble is that i sometimes have difficulties recognizing when the stress is getting to me. luckily, i have a pretty good monitoring system in the form of cecilia. she's perfected the ability of telling me to grow up and get over myself.

anyway, this little working vacation of mine will be over soon enough. i've been staying away from newspapers, political blogs, and pretty much anything newsworthy (not counting the colbert report, of course) all week and it feels just fine. when school starts, i'm sure i'll be ranting and raving like old times, but in the meanwhile it's a more contemplative dan, a mellow dan. fuck, i wish i had some drugs.

hi-ho, hi-ho

yesterday, i earned money for the first time since mid-may. i went to a new hire orientation for a certain fancy furniture concern that will soon open its doors in boston. i was conflicted about this job before i said yes. on the one hand, i'm not sure i want to work in retail anymore, the pay is less than slinging latte, and it's a much longer commute. but on the other hand, i won't stink of old milk, it's a new environment with new people, there's the possibility of making commissions, and a whopping discount on pretentious urban furniture. like most jobs, it's a mixed bag.

retail continues to hold sway over my life, but i'm just grateful it's not foodservice (sorry, dad). i like the idea of walking 5 miles during a shift instead of sitting at a desk and seeing how long it takes for my ass to assume the shape of my chair. i like meeting people (some of the time) and being able to talk to them--it's like acting class all over again. it's not fulfilling work, but i don't need it to be. i fulfill myself in my spare time by writing. i just want a way to pay the bills that won't fill me with black despair (or leave me reeking of dairy). and retail fits the bill. if only it fucking paid more, i'd be the happiest boy in town.



p.s. i rode on a scooter for the first time and it was awesome. the only other time i've gone that fast without a seatbelt is on a ski slope. and that time i got a concussion. scooters are sweet.

homecoming, indeed

i'm back in boston for 24 hours and i'm already sick. also, i have no job and nowhere to live as of september first. this sucks.

snootchie-bootchies

once in a great while--not nearly as often as i'd like--i just want to get blazed out of my mind. i haven't smoked weed in a while now, but i've been watching weeds on dvd for about 3 hours now, and i think it's actually killing me. the jonesing, that is. the show is fucking great. season 2 starts on monday, but i'll be sadly out of premium television range at that point (and possibly out on the street--welfare state, my ass, massachusetts). i don't have a dealer anyway, so even if i had cash, all i could do is stare at it and pray for a miracle. good thing chris died for my sins.

a blogger is joe

check him out, ya'll. except for the festering conservatism and an exceptional talent for bloviating, he's a stand-up kind of guy and i wish him the best. and if you don't agree with him, tell him so, he loves a good debate. just don't take it personally when he impugns your ancestors and starts hurling ritual quebecois hexes at you.

when the planets align

thoughts on social networking

i guess i'm part of the facebook generation, as these things are understood. i'm probably on the cusp of being too old for it actually, and if not for a youthful girlfriend, i likely wouldn't have bothered. that being said, i'm kind of a sucker for this stuff. if i was anywhere close to single, i could have a lot of fun with match.com and its loneliness-defeating ilk. as it stands, i guess i'm more of a voyeur(/exhibitionist?), using various networks (i'm on friendster and myspace too, i'm pretty sure) to check in on far-away friends and find out what those losers from high school are up to.

i'm not one of those addicts you hear about who posts new pictures every day or exhaustively comments on everybody's walls. for seriously, who has the time? i'm getting pretty tired just writing this shit. and i have better things to do, like finding a home and a paycheck.

oh yeah, and myspace, for christ's sake get over yourself. as much as i (may or may not) like you, i probably don't want to hear your band unless somebody i trust can vouch for it. my listening time is too damn valuable to me (i use it to listen to stuff i already like, ok? sue me, i'm human). myspace band pages are like blogs. if i read one i like, and they recommend somebody else's, i'll check it out and decide for myself. but if you just start asking me to be your friend and check out your "awesome band" i'm probably going to report you by saying you solicited me for underage sex. yes, it's vindictive, but at least you'll get to be on dateline! think of the exposure!

rupert murdoch probably doesn't like you anyway.

the great thing about these social networks is that they're not really social at all. i can completely ignore virtually every one of my "friends" if i want to. if i did it in real life, then i would be forced to drink alone (more than i already do) but in the vast uncharted internets, i can pretend to be too busy with meetings and power lunches to care about what your summer plans are, weird girl who i met sophomore year! i just wish there was some way to combine all three of my profiles into one place so i wouldn't have to check multiple sites just to cyberstalk people. what a hassle!

last week in dc

and i'm having a bit of hard time with it. i guess i should've expected it...i've been tempted to look for jobs around here instead of in boston, and to contact school and see how hard it would be to transfer for my final year. it's a weird feeling, i've always considered myself to be a pretty independent person, and the last year of long-distance relationshipping (ldr-ing) was hard but not nearly as hard as i had been afraid it would turn out to be. so why am i worried now?

because i'm also excited to leave. part of that is the things i have hanging over my head. looking for a job and an apartment at the same time is hell no matter how you slice it, but to be in the wrong city while cheap studios get taken and interviews get postponed is downright torturous. and despite my mom's conviction that i'm a member of the wait-and-see tribe (thanks, jd!), i actually prefer to go out and get shit done rather than let it get all sword of damocles on me (ok, that was gratuitous, i'm sorry). unless it's a paper for school. those are best left until the last minute, because that's when all the good ideas come out and play.

right, so i was going to use this post-work week to get out there and do a whole bunch of touristy things (climb the monument, go to the zoo, stand in the middle of the city and ask the cool looking people how to get to the jefferson memorial, take pictures of every building i see, eat signature dc foods (coffee and steak? every day? i feel like a lobbyist!), etc.) but now i'm gonna be guilty if i don't actually look for jobs/apartments. there's probably some way to equitably divide these things among the hours of the girlfriend-deprived portion of my day--there are far better ways to spend the hours when she's around, snap!--but all i really want to do is work on my latest story. since i'm basically trapped here with lots of free time, i should take advantage and really try to work through a chapter or three. with nanowrimo coming up fast, it's best to get into practice for 2000 words a day.

on top of all that, there's a very real sense that we've already started saying goodbye. shared glances heavy with significance, more hand-holding, lots of um...intimacy. none of which is bad, mind you. but it's hard to start saying goodbye with a week to go. i almost prefer to ignore it until the day i'm leaving, and then be sad for a day or two (or week, or until the phone sex starts) than to feel it dragging out through every minute we have together. she tries very hard not to be sad when we're apart though, more than i do, so i feel like she deserves a little indulgence. i'm perfectly ok with her sadness schedule. when i get sad and we're apart, i'll almost welcome it. i like a little melancholy now and then to spice things up--have a glass of bourbon, put on some mournful, beautiful music, light a few candles and stare at the cieling. i try to revel in the maudlin fun of it all. she's a stiff upper lip kind though. lacking in the "artistic temperament" (that's ok with me, i've got some to spare, after all). she bottles it up when we're apart, so it's almost good for her to be a little sad all week. a small price to pay for me anyway. my job is to cheer her up, and i think i'm damn good at it.

this is a little more personal than i usually get, so let me know if it's too much. not that i would stop. i do what i want, alright? quit trying to change me, jeez.

the cool kids

the day is fast approaching for my return to boston—land of cold winds, cold hearts, and cold harpoon!  sadly, beantown is also lacking in the type of interesting, hilarious, friendly, engaging, welcoming, thought provoking, thoroughly enjoyable, readable, and loveable (and lustable) blog scene that i’ve discovered in just my few short weeks here.  i’ve really enjoyed getting to know all the dc bloggers i’ve mentioned, and i’ve posted a few comments here and there on your various sites.  needless to say, i’ll still be a regular reader up in boston.

which brings me to point #2.  i want to invite any readers i have (i think there’s like 2 of you.  what’s up?  you should probably introduce yourselves to each other) to send me some links to any bloggers you know/read/met once/slept with in boston in the interests of making some connections.

my days of interning (and having both internets and the free time to make the most of them) are over as of 6pm today, so posts are going to be more sporadic over the next few weeks.  sorry, but that’s the way it goes.

it's outrage o'clock

i know, i know.  it’s completely uncool to post about politics in washington, but i’ve resisted as long as is humanly (or humanely) possible.  now let me get this off my chest.

once upon a time, i--unlike many of my contemporary yippie friends--worked for the minimum wage, which was a paltry $5.15/hr at the time.  it basically sucked and as soon as i could, i got a better job.  being a white, upper-middle class male, this was easy for me to do.  it is very, very hard for other people, mostly because they lack one or all of the traits listed above.  also because the man keeps them down.  anyway, that long-ago thankless toil came rushing back to me when I found out that the great state of massachusetts had overridden mitt’s veto and raised the state minimum wage. (and speaking of the mittster, he’s still a rampaging jackass)

as for the federal wage (because not all states are as cool as massachusetts, hell yeah!) it’s still only $5.15/hr.  gadzooks!  somebody call the fucking government, they’ll know what to do!

of course, because it’s congress, and congress is controlled by hulking soulless reptile-men (republicans!), what they did was vote down the minimum wage hike proposed by my good buddy ted kennedy earlier this summer.  shortly thereafter, they voted for a congressional pay raise.  the hypocrisy and gall that these men exhibit on a daily basis is simply mind-blowing.  seriously, if your mind is still in one piece, go back and reread the last three sentences.  i’ll wait.

see what I mean?  blown like a high school quarterback on prom night.  but it doesn’t end there, unfortunately.  just this week, they put together a “compromise” bill that slapped a minimum wage hike together with the repeal of the estate tax.  in case you’re not familiar with the estate tax, it is a tax levied on estates valued at $5 million or more (double for couples).  it is a tax that only affects the super-mega wealthy.  and repealing it is a republican wet dream.  unfortunately for the rest of us americans, it will cost our government almost a trillion dollars (with a tr-) in revenue by 2021.  that’s money that probably would go to programs to help the poor.  is it any wonder that republicans want to eliminate this revenue stream?  it lets them pour money on the rich and oppress the poor at the same time!  praise jesus!

anyway, attaching this ass-rape of a policy to the minimum wage hike is a blatant attempt to lure dems across the aisle and make them vote to repeal the estate tax.  if it works, it might just go down as the worst law of the 108th congress.  i’d say ever, but i think the USA PATRIOT act still wins that one.

ok, politics over.  go back about your business.  there’s a post about debauchery coming up soon, i promise.