chaos in a box

We still haven't set up the house yet, but things have been busy.
That, and my brain is shutting down.

Thursday was Tapas with pitbullpotpie and the usual suspects.

Friday was Rotzo's birthday party at Midtown Bowl, hosted by his lovely moonbird. Very groovy bowling ball. Incredible cake - raspberry and chocolate! And I discovered a new drink: booze-lite with vodka and crystal lite pomegranite tea. Very pink and girlie-looking.


Saturday was a 40th birthday party with the Grateful Gluttons that included a giant inflatable waterslide in the back yard. The birthday girl's mother was one of the people first to go down the slide. The party also had the appropriate theme "Summer of Love" potluck.


Sunday - afternoon brunch with _gothfather_

Happy Paul Reubens Day

Summer of Love

Groovy.

what I learned today

You are judged by the company you keep.
i.e.
When they raid the whore house, they take the piano player too.

Still brushing ants of of me from taking out the trash this morning.

Was ready to go to work and then I saw something different in my new neighborhood - trash cans on the curb.
So while my housemate went on to work, I returned to the house to push the bin to the curb. A few steps up the driveway and I had to sensation of spider webs on my arms. I looked down to see my arms and shirt covered with ants.

Brushed ants off. Walked a few steps further up the driveway. Brushed more ants off. Walked a few more steps up the driveway. And so on, until I finally got the infested bin to the curb. I hope they lift those bins with the arms of the garbage truck and little or now human contact. I wish we had a can of RAID or that I had been able to post some sort of warning for the collectors.

moving on

I went out to eat sushi with my favorite neighbor and we talked about the move, old Dutch men, art, music, crazy families, etc. Really good evening with her. We moved from Sushi Bar to hanging out on her back deck at home, drinking wine until her husband came home and joined us outside. Stayed until the my eyelids were heavy and I was shivering from the cool night air. I wish there could have been more nights like that.

This evening, we get the keys to The Ranch and start moving in. Tomorrow is the big-move day. Monster gets the rental truck at 10 a.m. and we start grabbing and loading at 11:00 a.m.

good monster. bad monster.

We did dinner and a movie last night. It was the opening night of Harry Potter - Order of the Phoenix and Monster was dying to see it on the opening day. He'd already bought our tickets online and couldn't wait to get to the theatre. The movie started at 7:05 p.m. and we got to the theatre at 5:00. We picked up the tickets first before getting something to eat next door. He had the cheese ravioli. I had the tilapia salad special, which was great with a very bitey fresh garlic ranch dressing. While I enjoyed a very good glass of Sterling Merlot after dinner, he went inside the cinema to see if they were seating yet. He phoned me from inside the theatre to let me know he was already in the theatre, saving our seats.

To his credit, Monster paid for both dinner and the movie tickets.

Unfortunately, Harry Potter was showing in theatre 3. That's the mildew room. Two years after a nasty leak was fixed, the smell of mold still kinda knocks me back when I step inside - usually giving me a headache and/or sore throat. I meandered around the lobby for a while before sitting down in time for Monster to empty his bladder before the movie.

About half an hour before the movie, a woman sat down beside Monster with one of her sons, while waiting for the other one to come in from the concession stand. There were only two seats empty beside Monster. There was one seat empty in front of him and there was a seat beside me empty. She asked very politely if we could scoot down one seat to let her other son sit next to them. I was instantly saying "okay" and Monster strongly stated that No, he would not move down a seat and he had been waiting too long to see this movie to move for anyone. Once the movie was ready to start, she took the seat in front of Monster, and He was angry at Her for obstructing his view. After the movie, on the way home, I mentioned that it wouldn't have hurt a thing for him to move down one spot so they could all sit together. He got angry with me then, saying "Well, I guess I'm just a bad person!" and so on.
Maybe this was his way of expressing stress over moving this week but that's no excuse for being an asshole to other patrons, in my opinion.

Not leaving well-enough alone, I had to point out that he was behaving just like his best friend - a guy who will refuse to move his car a few feet forward at fast food take-out windows and who will complain when the free internet service is down at cafes where he's not even buying a cup of coffee.

All of us feel irritable and out of control sometimes and that's when the least we can do is try to be polite to eachother, especially when it costs us nothing to do so. And we all need to remember that none of us are especially entitled to anything from the universe.

Surgeon General

News story I was listening to this morning.

The Cure 2007 USA tour

Looks like they have a few dates booked in the Southeast:

Thu-Sep-13 Tampa - St Pete Times Forum
Sat-Sep-15 Atlanta - Gwinnett Center
Mon-Sep-17 Charlotte - Charlotte Bobcats Arena

My Life

I'd like to live either where I have the most friends near little five points or East Atlanta, or near work in Chamblee to avoid fuel costs, commute time and wear on my car. Ultimately, to buy a house, I'd choose to be in the near-friends area because jobs come and go.

We have a new house to rent in the NorthCrest subdivision. I have less money now than I've had in years. Northcrest is close to work, so maybe I can work out a way to live less expensively. I am more bored now than I've been in years too (if that's possible).

Last night was very cool. Hung out with friends until the wee hours at a backyard potluck. It was at a pal's house labeled The Shire - a little place in the middle of the city surrounded by kudzu and huge oak trees. Kinda like a secret garden. Our hostess had photos from her recent trip to Ireland and various friends played guitar and sang all night - lotta blues and Neil Young songs, as you might expect, but also some Marvin Gaye and Ray Charles. Fun. The subject came up of what would make good sing-alongs - songs that most people knew? Sounds like some future iTunes lists for someone.

I'm getting ready to move to another, bigger house. Still have the condo in Midtown, but it's a bit small and I desire garden space. This house is a classic mid-century modern ranch in a neighborhood of similar houses. Photos will follow, probably, as soon as I'm in and unpacked.

Iced Coffee

kick us out of the gene pool

Warning:
If you are looking for an amusing stories and good news, skip this post.
If you want to feel better about your life, by contrast, read on.


Spoke with my mother this weekend with little to say about the house until after we take possession.
The news from her end was good and bad. Mostly bad, as that is my mother's way.
Now you see where I get it from.

The good:
The new Tempur-Pedic mattress my mother bought is fantastic. She says she slept more last week than she did the last month, and she can do something she hadn't been able to do since her knee surgery - lie on her stomach.

The bad:
In a nutshell, with exception of my brother's family, all of the next generation is going down in flames.

My thug cousin sons are by age: #1 son is selling weed for a living (though he works in the service industry where that sort of thing seems standard to fill in gaps income), #2 son has dropped out of highschool, still carries a lot of anger against his mother, and is (surprise!!) a pothead, #3 son is most likely going to follow his older brothers example and truly shows no interest in girls - probably will not be carrying on the proud family name.

Another cousin's oldest daughter has been diagnosed with an unidentified mass on her brain last week. She's still in the hospital undergoing tests. I hope it is something treatable. She and her younger sister have taken up smoking. At best, maybe this crisis will motivate them to take care of their health and question their immortality.

Another cousin's teenage son has opted to live with his ex-convict mother and no longer communicates with his father. Apparently all ties are being cut by his choice.

The list just goes on and on. Monster says my family is starting to make his look almost normal.

Independence Day

There are plenty of invitations and activities on July 3rd - signing the new lease and handing over a ton of money to the new landlord. Movies. Travelogs. Dinner with friends.

But I've got nothing going on July 4th. Even the old people are busy that day. I know a lot of the day will be spent packing and preparing to move on (hopefully) July 14 and 15. That is not an all day thing. We'll get tired of only each other's company at home all day. At least this will be only one day off work.

So, I'm once again wondering what sort of things are going on that day around here. Must investigate.