June 2004 Archives

Change of plans. I'll be in Florida tomorrow night. Tomorrow night, folks. Still staying through the first of July. It was a flight issue. It's fine by me.

I am horribly unprepared.

I will audioblog while I'm gone.

This person on the Food Network board actually gets what I've been saying...

I think the teenage son is a real cutie pie and it's amazing what he's done with himself if you've seen any "before" pictures of him. Plus he said today that now he eats pretty much of a normal diet, including all carbs except for sugar and refined flour -- pretty sensible if you ask me. If it took "low carbing" it to kick-start this young man's diet, I say more power to him.

A few more...

Christian is so lucky his mom and dad found out about l/c and shared/taught him and his brother also. I'm sure it has changed their lives forever. God bless all of them.

Aw! George brought his son on the show today! He's a cute kid, and I really liked his interaction w/George on the show.

Great show again today. Christian looks like a natural in front of the camera just like Dad!

I really enjoyed seeing you and Christian cooking together, and the stories you shared were wonderful. Well done!!!

What a fine young man. He should be proud of himself and for being an example to others.

This is a diet for people who like hearty food. It works, it is healthy and it is for life. I assume you heard Christian say that he began to order salads in restaurants. Do you think it was an overabundance of salad that got him to 320 pounds?

I emote a lot on camera. Maybe I just emote a lot in life? I don't think so though. I'm too laid back a person in real life to move my face so much.

On camera my mouth and eyebrows do their own thing, apparently. It's nervous acting. Me, trying too hard to act like... me. I come off very animated. I guess that's what they want in television though anyway. An exaggerated version of yourself. I guess it was perfect then.

Note for the future: I must stop showing so much teeth. They are scary. I think it's the contrast against the makeup or something, but my gap seems twice as wide.

Rochelle is a really great makeup woman though. I was wondering who that dude without acne and with color in his skin was. I hope she's back for the second season.

They flashed photographs of Ryan on the screen as well. That was unexpected. So, Ryan, if you missed it... which I'm sure you did... you were on TV this morning.

My segment itself... ugh. Ugh. Hopefully it edits up nice. It seemed like a mess. It was dark and they had to avoid the windows. The windows are everywhere. So the camera angles were basically limited to RIGHT beside my face. This was so very, very distracting.

What I said of the filming of my episode of the show, back in February. It finally airs tomorrow (Sunday) at noon. I'm scared to watch it. I'm always uncomfortable watching the show, or any show we've been on for that matter.

My parents put out spreads of food. They practically throw a little party. Every Sunday. I'm usually still asleep. Tomorrow I'll wake up. It's the least I can do on Father's Day.

You might ask me what I miss most about Florida and I might say my friends. Yeah, my friends.

And you might ask me what I miss secondly. The Atlanta Bread Company. Their ABC Special, no mayonaise. (Ham, turkey, roast beef and provalone on a hard roll.)

Yes, I am saying that I miss a sandwich nearly as much as I miss my friends. You must understand, it's a really good sandwich. In fact, if I wasn't writing this post on a full stomach, who knows, the sandwich might have been the number one.

So it was with great celebration that I read of an Atlanta Bread opening in White Plains. Opening a mere twenty minute drive away. And opening in the same complex as a Target, another forgotten friend of mine!

It had been months since I'd eaten an ABC Special. It was time to get in the car.

It isn't open yet. I had half expected the internet tricked me on this one. But still, I got to see the Atlanta Bread logo next to a little sign, "COMING SOON" and that was enough. Just knowing that Atlanta Bread will soon be a staple of my diet once again is comforting.

Also comforting, the knowledge that I'll be spending time with an ABC Special in just eight days when I take my trip down to Florida. That helped me cope as well.

Last night the Brewhouse girls had some fun with a labelmaker. They showed up in my house with labels all over themselves.

Then they spent minutes alone in my room, giggling with amusement.

I knew exactly what they were up to, but they were still overblown with laughter. Still laughing as I said, "Okay, I'll come look at the labels you left in my room."

They had peeled them off their clothing and stuck them everywhere. The history of their night. Their inside jokes. Their labels on my door, my printer, my stereo.

On my lightswitch, it says, "ASK ME ABOUT MY EX WIFE."

Under my computer monitor, it says, "EVERYONE SHOULD DISPISE (sic) BANGING SPATCHULAS (sic) & SPOONS ON POTS AND PANS."

On the wall above my bed, "ASK ME ABOUT MY ABNORMALLY INVERTED LEFT NIPPLE."

I guess I have to leave them where they are now. They'll get funnier with age, I think.

Addendum for Jeremy: spelling errors were pointed out to insinuate drunkenness, not stupidity.

On my stereo, "ASK ME ABOUT MY DRINKING PROBLEM."

My episode of the show airs this Sunday, Father's Day, but that's not why I'm posting. Just a friendly reminder.

Today Food Network called... the show is being picked up for a second season.

When I started this blog, when I moved to Connecticut, we had no idea if there would ever even be a show. I can't believe how much hope we were operating on at the time.

I can't believe how scary the premiere was. How there was no telling if the show would do well. How today, three more recipes are in the top ten. That's the fourth week running with that. One is the number one recipe as well.

I still don't know how well the show actually does, but I know how well it's received. The top ten recipe board is at least proof of that.

And I know that it's been picked up. That there's more filming to come. That they're designing a studio. Studio filming means higher production values... better quality. Better show.

Not sure if I'm allowed to talk of this yet. Don't repeat it!

I wanted to audioblog this. This is just too much to say at seven in the morning. Amy left not too long ago. We were playing Scrabble. Her, Jeremy and I. This was our night. Scrabble and Wildboyz and good times.

Today, yesterday now, was an important day. A day to purchase a new tire for Jeremy's car. Purchase a lawnmower and assemble it; mow the lawn. A visit to the gym.

Amy and Allison and a third girl, Jess on the phone. Road trip. They're saying, "Road trip."

Today, yesterday now, was going to go nothing like we planned. Let me say that there is no new tire. There is no new lawnmower. There is just more overgrowth in my backyard. More green.

Let me say something about Amy and her "props" purchased at a party supply store prior to our disembarkment. Hawaiian leis that never left our necks and other cornball fun. She wore a fake moustache.

Tomorrow I'm going to post the pictures and maybe some of the stream of consciousness / observations I took in my notebook throughout the day. But for now, I'll drop mention of the covered bridges and climbing down onto the rocks of a flowing dam. The field hockey. The giant soda cans; giant apples and one particularly out of place crow. The old steam engine. The general store with the three legged dog where we ate lunch. The giant chimney. The haunted cellars deep within the woods that we drove around and around but didn't venture in... not today anyway. The Gravitron. Finally a visit to the edge of Long Island Sound for no reason at all and then eventually my house; Scrabble.

So yeah. Today went a little different than expected.

I don't think I can complain about not doing anything anymore. I think I've officially been to every corner of Connecticut now.

More after I sleep...

To preface... this house was built in 1959. It was a simpler time. There isn't a television in every room. Cable television does not yet exist. This has nothing to do with cable television, but it will. This has to do with overloaded power breakers.

This is going to be all over the place for a moment.

Central air is a beautiful thing. It is the best thing about the south. It could also be the best thing about the north, but is mostly absent. It's a cost issue. I sometimes want to slap anyone that scoffs at central air, insisting that they get a wonderful cross breeze just by opening the front door, nineteen windows, the back door, the garage door and turning on that little exhaust fan above the stove.

We don't have central air. It's a cost issue. This gets back to overloaded power breakers, I promise.

There are three single-serving window air conditioners going at all times now. It's not enough, still, and the one in the living room sounds like the soothing white noise in the cabin of an airliner, only amplified ten times over to the point that it's no longer soothing but all-encompassing. To the point that you can't hear the television any longer. The television. Isn't that the point of the living room nowadays? No worries though. There's a television in every room. Cable too. This has nothing to do with cable television, but it will. This has to do with overloaded power breakers, remember?

These air conditioners are causing new stress on our feeble power breakers. Not to mention the zoo of fans running in Jeremy's room, though I doubt those have as much of an impact. Certainly not as much of an impact as...

My hair iron. Gasp! Dare I speak of a straightening iron? Yes. My hair, when not tended to, tends to be a horrible mop of frizz, curls and vertical bigness. So I straighten my hair. I realize that this is a bit emasculating, but these are different times. There's a television in every room. Cable too. This has nothing to do with cable television, but it will. This has to do with overloaded power breakers and the point at which they overload. The point? I plug the hair iron in in the bathroom and half the house loses power. Computers lose workloads, be it blog entries or pages in low carb cookbooks due out by Simon and Schuster in January of next year. I plug the hair iron in the only open outlet of my bedroom and the other half of the house loses power. Different computers lose workloads. Different blog entries. Simon and Schuster breathes safely, but my hair is still a mess.

There is a way around this. There is only one way around this. There is cable in every room. There is an extra outlet, built into the back of the cable box.

And so, just now, I fixed my hair, the iron's cord running into the back of a cable box. And I had to laugh. And then I started in on 1959. A simpler time. No television in every room. Cable television does not yet exist. And boys like me just deal with their frizz, curls and vertical bigness. Then again, without cable, who are they trying to model themselves after anyway?

With this new audioblogging and the photographs that are ever increasing, I would hate to lose interest in actually expressing myself through words.

So here are some words.

A lot of partying going on. I think the pictures clearly prove this. But... here are some words. It felt good to loosen up a bit. It felt real good.

It felt like hell the next morning. And then it felt like hell the second time I woke up, that afternoon.

Between Boston and the past few days of boozing with the Brewhouse girls, I think I've had my fill for a good while.

I say this now. Remember I said this now.

Flying down to Florida in two weeks. Can't believe I haven't mentioned this yet. Flying down to Florida alone. Somewhat spontaneous of me. Yeah I'm counting down the days and all of that. But more on this later...

Funny... I don't remember leaving my stereo turned up as loud as it goes and on a classic rock station and with the EQ preset set wrong when I left for Boston. Funny I should find it that way now, huh?

Maybe I'm paranoid and maybe I have a reason. Such a long and blurry and fantastic time, this weekend. A fantastic time in Gardner, Massachusetts: The Furniture Capital of New England!

To explain... because, this time, the pictures don't really speak for themselves...

Gardner

Gardner is a town that is quite seriously, known for handmaking standard wooden chairs. You know in Mel Gibson's The Patriot when Mel Gibson is handmaking a wooden chair? That's what I'm talking about. That's exactly what people do in Gardner.

Gardner is a town so small and closed after dark that I found far too much joy in the discovery of a 24 hour Stop and Shop. It made me think of home. Norwalk. And until I saw this Stop and Shop in the Furniture Capital of New England I wasn't entirely sure if I had accepted Norwalk as home. And so, though I did not buy one of your famous chairs, Gardner... I did take away a bit of insight into my feelings on Connecticut. And also a bag of Pepperidge Farm Goldfish crackers from your 24 hour Stop and Shop... I took away those as well.

Coincidentally, Pepperidge Farm's headquarters are right here in Norwalk. There was nothing coincidental about that, but it's a bit of trivia that I enjoy repeating with hopes that it will make others feel that their own towns are insignificant in compare. "Pepperidge Farm? Whoa now! Your town is, like, famous! My town just has that high murder rate!"

Adam, his family, his brother, his brother's graduation party, beer, wine and something more

The fact that we could even wake up at all was amazing. The fact that we had to wake up to walk downstairs, to party, was kind of funny. Our first night with Adam was long and necessary with all the catching up we had to do. Old times and all of that. What I miss of Florida. What I miss of Florida isn't Florida at all. It's, of course, the people. Adam is good people. So there was all that catching up, catching buzzes and eventually catching a few hours of shuteye. A few hours of shuteye before the party.

Adam's brother graduated from high school. I have a standard line for people that graduate high school. "It's more than I ever did," or something like that. Come to think of it, my line's not very standardized at all.

Adam's brother graduated from high school and a lot of people came out to celebrate. A tremendous lot. Of course none of the pictures can back me up on this, but without sleep and with alcohol... I didn't think to take many pictures that day.

I'm going to make this a lot easier... Adam's whole family is great. They're great and they throw a great graduation party. I could type forever, put us both to sleep. Type about Adam's brother Andy's bike with entire rolls of duct tape wrapped around the stumps where its wheels were removed. Wrapped around to soften the blows against the trampoline as they did Xtreme-sports-fashioned tricks.

I could type about the poker. Right after I rode in the back of a car, completely out of it, to a completely different town to pick up Papa John's. Right after I switched from beer to wine.

And when things died down and most everyone was gone, Andy and his remaining friends ate a dozen hamburger buns straight out of the bag. It reminded me of Adam Wekarski back in Florida. If you know him as well, I don't think I need to explain.

I would like to spend time living in Boston / pretending to attend Harvard

The fact that we could even wake up at all was amazing. The fact that we actually woke up to walk around Boston in freezing rain is even more. June 6th and sixty degrees and oh how ridiculous that is. The wind between the buildings, the rain... even colder.

Boston had the same and similarly immediate draw on me that New York first had when I first visited there. More specifically... I wanted to move there before the end of the week, if at all possible. Boston is smaller than New York. New York is too big anyway. Boston is cleaner than New York. New York is too dirty. Boston is everything within walking distance. It's Harvard, Harvard, Harvard.

It's Harvard because that's where we spent most of our day, yes. Yes, admittedly we didn't even see Fenway. Still Harvard is enough to sell me on Boston. Yes, I was hypnotized by the culture and yes I am easily hypnotized by culture. Yes I am easily hypnotized by the smart, young, attractive and generally well off girls that line the bookstores. The gigantic bookstores. Yes I am entirely intimidated as well. Yes, more than usual.

For now though, I can't afford to live in Boston. Forever, I can never go to Harvard. So we browsed the stores and maybe some people mistook me for smart, young, attractive and generally well off. Just as long as they didn't see me go into the Harvard-branded gift shop. That would give me away in an instant.

Having a holy shit moment...

The Transit of Venus across our sun is happening on TUESDAY. It's the first time it's happened in 122 years folks. If you are reading this right now and don't have access to some magical life-extending elixir, it will only happen once more in your lifetime... 2012.

Nobody in Florida updates their blogs anymore. I don't blame them though. I know too many things right now.

Was watching Six Feet Under and someone mentioned what I've heard before... that no matter how big other people's problems are, that doesn't mean yours are insignificant. I'll buy into that.

So yeah, you've all got your problems, but my triceps are killing me.

A little humor.

Tomorrow night Jeremy and I are off to Massachusetts to chill with Adam Bolduc who has pulled himself out of Florida to come up and see his brother graduate.

I apologize for inside jokes.

It will be good to debate with Adam for hours over life and politics and whatever like the good old days. Oh... by the way, recently I've decided that Florida was officially "the good old days" for me. Hindsight! It will be good to debate with Adam for hours over what it's like to be in the shit that is going on in the Sunshine State right now.

I apologize for being cryptic.

So we'll be gone all weekend and being gone all weekend is what I want to be right now. Anything to do something... you know?

I swear I'm not on anything right now.

This is going to be one of those writing posts. A post where I talk a lot about writing and maybe you're a writer too and you can relate, or maybe you admire that I write and so you enjoy the post for that. But then, maybe you just don't give a crap, can't relate and are just waiting for me to post another picture of myself. That's a whole different thing... the girls coming out of the woodwork lately.

Today, yesterday now... June 1st was the day my character was living on when I last left my novel. It spans the entire summer and is dated like a journal, so you are always very aware of the date. And so today in my novel was, for twenty-four hours, today in my life. And of course that left me thinking that I could do it... I could write the novel day by day, on the day. I could live two lives this summer.

It's now June 2nd and I still see June 1st at the top of the page, a measly 109 words underneath. So that whole plan didn't work out very well.

Oh well.

Despite everything, the television shit... I feel my life is very boring at the moment and that I need at least a little spark in it to write any story with a spark of it's own. It's funny... just being productive and writing can be enough of a spark in my life. Then it's reciprocating for a little while. I get on a roll.

For now though, I don't know what I need.