Wednesday, February 28, 2001    

On my drive to work this morning I heard the Monster Mash being played on one of the local stations. Only it wasn't really the Monster Mash, it was the Monster Ash. Something about the Count and all of his goulish friends receiving ashes during mass. Weird.

Yuck. As much as I really do love winter, all of this cold gray weather is starting to get to me. My throat feels like I just dined on a big bag of cottonballs. And my ears hurt.

Monday, February 26, 2001    

There are times when I want to tell you everything. I want to be able to sit down and pour everything out in one long steady stream of consciousness without ever having to go back and read every other sentence again. I want to be able to paint you beautiful scenes and tell you the most wonderful stories. I want you to see something where there was once nothing. I want you to be able to feel it.

And of course, I want you to relate.

It's not that I can't. It's not that I don't want to. I just don't always know how. It's funny how we often feel such a strong connection with another person we have never met just by reading their words alone. I can't begin to tell you how many times I've had that feeling. It is perhaps the single most beautiful and frustrating thing in the entire world for me. At least right now. But I'm not exactly giving up either. I want to share too. I just wanted you to know.

Saturday, February 24, 2001    

To avoid further embarrassment, I finally got extra copies made of my apartment keys. Now I just need to wait another 2-3 months before I distribute them to people who are obviously a little more responsible than myself.

I find it amusing that in a couple of hours from now I'll be at "A Night At The Races", which is an event being hosted by the catholic school where my mother teaches. As an added bonus, I get to witness my mother checking I.D.'s at the door while the members of the clergy drink free beer and squander their money at blackjack.

Friday, February 23, 2001    

Hey! Get the hell out of here and go wish J a happy birthday, will ya?

Go. Shoo. Nothing to see here.

Thursday, February 22, 2001    

Knock on wood. Cross your heart. Step on a crack.
How many times a day do you find yourself acting superstitiously? A few days ago the temperature had reached almost fifty degrees...I was getting anxious for spring. But as I watched the snow pile up outside of my office window earlier, I realized that I was repeating something over and over again in my head:

"This weather is going to break. This weather is going to break. This weather is going to break. This weather is going to break. I just know it. This weather is going to break. This weather is going to break".

Right. For a few minutes I was almost convinced that I was able to make it all go away . My words suddenly held the power to control the tides and disrupt the natural order of the universe and whatnot. I closed my eyes for a brief second. When I opened them up again it was snowing even harder.

Silly .

Monday, February 19, 2001    

Who said Mondays can't be fun?

I. Am. Going to. Type in. Really short. Sentences right now. To make up for. My ridiculously long. Run on sentence. From yesterday. Eat your heart out, Shatner.

Mmmm! Jesus loves juicy hamburgers (and apparently he's single too, ladies).

Sunday, February 18, 2001    

I pretty much spent the majority of my morning and afternoon cleaning. After about a month and a half I've finally decided that dust collecting isn't exactly that interesting of a hobby.

Afterwards Amy and I ended up running a few errands. First we went to the bookstore where I purchased some books I haven't read to add to my already huge stack of books I haven't read to the clothes store to where I bought some really cool shirts to balance out my wardrobe of really lame-o shirts to the coffee house where we sat and drank iced mochas and picked up bread for dinner to the grocery store where we bought food for dinner to the video store where we rented a movie to my mom's where I had to pick up a few things and finally back to my place where Matt and Amy are currently watching the movie we rented but I'm not 'cause it really sucks but hey at least dinner was good.

Phew. Some days just seem like one big drawn out sentence.

Friday, February 16, 2001    

My lunch just consisted of a half a bag of disgustingly cheesy flavored potato chips and a chocolate bar. The chocolate bar , however, contained tiny crunchy pretzel pieces. So yeah...everything is okay now.

Shoot and run. Duck and cover. I always get my stuff done at work. Honest.

Thursday, February 15, 2001    

Did I ever tell you that I once got stuck in the middle of a fight between the Minnesota Vikings? I almost completely forgot about the incident until earlier this evening while enjoying dinner with some friends. It was a place I hadn't been to in years. It was also the same place where everything happened...

You see, I used to be a karaoke DJ. It wasn't as glamorous of a job as you might think, but it was fun. Perhaps the most memorable event of my five-year long career was when the Minnesota Vikings came to town for a football camp at one of the local area schools.

I showed up at my usual gig on Saturday night only to find about twenty of the largest men I had ever seen before in my life, all guzzling down pitchers full of beer and waiting for the "entertainment" to start. Little did they (or I) know what tragic events would unfold that evening. I was just about finished setting up my equipment when one of the players came up to me with a karaoke slip in his hand. I knew I was in trouble when I turned it over to see "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" scrawled across the piece of paper in huge awkward letters. I managed to avoid calling him up to the microphone for quite some time, but I could see he was starting to get restless. And since someone once told me never to piss off a professional football player, I finally decided that it was his turn to sing. He of course agreed (as did two of his teammates), and I suddenly found myself in the middle of the extremely oversized trio as they began to burst into song. Everything was going pretty smoothly...that is until after I realized they had twisted all of the words around and were poking fun at one of the other players that was seated at their table.

To make a long story short, when the three men returned to their seats the obviously enraged "Fat, Fat Whatever-His-Name-Was" reached out and smashed an empty beer bottle across one of the singer's faces. Everything after that was pretty much a blur. I think I was jostled around a bit as I scrambled to protect my equipment during the scuffle and the manager of the bar kept shooting "this is all your fault" looks over her shoulder at me as she called the cops.

No wonder I hadn't remembered the whole ordeal until this evening. It was after all a pretty traumatic event...I probably blocked it from my memory. And even though it may sound pretty unbelievable, I still have the newspaper clipping to prove it.

Wednesday, February 14, 2001    

Productivity is dead.
I'm not really that much of a "gamer". For some strange reason however I recently dusted off my old playstation and have been pretty much scaring the ever-loving-shit out of myself by playing Resident Evil 3 with all of the lights off and my surround sound cranked up. It's only one of the three games that I own.

By the way J...sorry about that little "mishap" yesterday. People who have glass chess sets shouldn't throw...err...nevermind.

And of course today is Valentine's Day. My plans for this evening? I'm getting my hair cut. Woohoo.

Okay. I got my hair cut. Now what?

Monday, February 12, 2001    

Welcome to Monday, folks. Just two days shy of chocolate covered candy kisses and wishy washy I wuv you's.

...excuse me while I go throw up.

Okay. Okay. So I won't exactly be that big of a grump for Valentine's day. I received this card in the mail today from my Grandparents. No matter what holiday it is, they always send me the usual juvenile type card signed with their trademark x's and o's on the inside... ...and it always makes me smile.

Sunday, February 11, 2001    

Yesterday I felt like a little kid in a candy store. I made a trip to one of the music stores just outside of Cleveland that I have been wanting to go to for quite some time. When I walked in I couldn't believe what I saw...there were literally hundreds of guitars hanging everywhere on the walls! I walked around in complete awe, stopping every now and then to take one down to play. I stood there for a few minutes with each one as I ran my hands over the smooth finish, admiring every subtle curve and feature before plugging it in. As I sat there immersed in the rich tones and vibrant notes that resonated from each beautifully crafted instrument, I briefly looked up...only to realize that I was the last person left in the store.

Today has only been an extension from the day before. All of the gloom and murkiness from the past couple of weeks has now been replaced with crisp, clear beautiful weather. The kind of weather that drives motivation and makes you feel glad to be outside. For a while I was beginning to forget just how beautiful the sky (and the stars) really are. Too many of us wander about with our eyes focused on the ground when what we should really be doing more often is looking up...

(See. I don't bitch and moan and complain all of the time.)

Thursday, February 08, 2001    

Ouch. I've got the worst crick in my neck today...I can barely move or turn my head to the right. When I do, a sharp wincing pain immediately follows. I feel like C-3PO from Star Wars (although not fluent in over six million forms of communication). I have to turn my entire body just to look behind me or at anything that even goes beyond my peripheral vision.

I am now beginning to think that my current state of pain is a direct result of a rather odd dream from last night. The only thing I remember is that it had something to do with professional wrestlers. I'm talking about the old school brawlers too -- Hulk Hogan, Randy "The Macho Man" Savage, Captain Lou Albano, etc. (not that sappy soap opera bullshit they have on nowadays). Is it possible that I was pulling a "Superfly Snuka" from the top of my headboard last night without even knowing it?

Wednesday, February 07, 2001    

Geez. You'd think that I wouldn't have so much trouble transferring my domain over to another ISP, eh? Well, after initiating the transfer, I was surprised that it went through so quickly...that is until I tried to bring up my site.

"What the fuck...what do you mean this is where Ashland Photo will live?!? This can't be right. I'm supposed to be 'living' here! Crap."

That was this morning. It pretty much put me in a pissy mood for the rest of the day because I was sure that something went wrong with the switchover. I've never had anything like that happen before and to tell you the truth it had me, J and Nick all quite puzzled. At the end of the work day I checked one last time before heading home. I typed in my domain name, double checked that I had everything spelled right and then held my breath as I hit the return key:

Coming soon - The Barberton First Church of Christ

I think someone is trying to tell me something here. Needless to say, everything finally seems to be in working order. For now at least.

Listening:
Rush - Roll The Bones

Reading:
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers

Feeling:

Thinking:
"about how much I would rather be enjoying a nap"