I know. It’s been a month. I suck. What do I have to do to get you to write more frequently? I don’t know, make it more fun than Warcraft? You got me there.
So, without further ado, here is an update of the last month:
Painted. And painted. And did I mention we painted? And now, 227 Bay Street #4a looks better than it did when I moved in. Bastages! Of, course, there’s still no roof deck, but I’m working on that. Slowly. Had to attend a few Christmas parties, try to hook up with friends – on that last front, I’m not scheduling anymore. (Nothing personal, everyone, but it’s really hard when you are only in town for a short while to do the coordinating, and to chase people down. From now on, everyone gets the “I’m in town” heads-up, and that’s all she wrote, baby. You call me if you want to hang out.) I eventually got the “oh, I wanted to see you” emails and texts, which helped prompt my new policy.
Anyhoo… what’s with the Holiday decorations? And, to be fair, what’s with the Christians… because there really are just “Christmas Decorations”. You never see a house like this one with a giant Menorah on the lawn:
Did you know you can pull your groin from sitting on a paint can? You can… and will.
Even though I lived in a city, and really didn’t require a vehicle, we always had one. It’s amazing the difference it makes in your life when you suddenly don’t have that amenity. Oh, sure, the same can be said for food, water and a decent roof over your head, but let’s get back to me, eh?
Quick trips to the store weren’t so quick and you, without fail, forget something. But the lack of amenities stretch when you are living in a place you’ve already moved out of:
So, finally the holidays came and I got to see my wife again. Of course, then we stayed at my parents’ house. Always an interesting experience to go back after so many years away. My ‘rents are great, though. They never complain (ok, almost never) and don’t care what we do as long as we are there. They get that from my maternal grandparents – the best of hosts, ever.
OK, back to some snide comments – that was a little too touchy-feely.
We were to have a “paper” Christmas, because we were traveling. Of course, that never works out. Between stuff left in the apartment that I wanted to send home, to presents and other knick-knacks, we sent 5 boxes via UPS to ourselves. There’s something funny about mailing something to yourself. You’re there when you send it, and there to pick it up. Of course, there’s nothing funny about the cost these days – and since the Post Office seems to suck more and more, you have to go with UPS or FedEx for reliable delivery, if you can call it that.
Where am I going with this? I don’t know.
New Years with friends in JC. To be fair, we almost didn’t make New Years, as we were sick, tired and fading by 11:15. Consciousness won out, though, as we broke out the LotR Trivial Pursuit questions (fuck the game) and geeked ourselves to midnight.
Yes, Emilie still has a shaved head. Yes, Kevin still dresses like a gay lumberjack. Yes, it is still past Shannon’s bedtime at 9. Yes, Ehren still talks more sober than we all do drunk. Yes, Sundi is still pregnant. And yes, I do wear that sweater a lot.
The more things change, Mary. The more things change.
And, finally, the return to normalcy. If you can call North Little Rock “normal”. I guess it is like 50-60% of the country, so perhaps it is more “normal,” by the strict definition of the word. But I’ll take abnormal any day over normal, offbeat over staid, loud over quiet (except in bars – turn the fuckin’ music down, already!), progressive over conservative. And maybe that’s why it’s lonely… sometimes.
Soon, we won’t really have time for lonely. Or people. Or games. Or drinking. Or sleeping, for that matter. We got the crib, not that the child will be sleeping a lot. I did my fatherly duties and put the son-of-a-bitch together. And then there’s the changing table, which is just a fancy word for dresser, in my opinion.
And my mother made me send her pictures of it. I don’t know why – I told her, “the room’s not decorated or anything… it’s just the crib and that’s it.” She didn’t care. She wanted to see it. Grandmas get goofy sometimes.
And then, the saga of continu… wait a sec. The Saga of Continuing Disaster!
That’s better. So, I had an Xbox problem in November. It died. Well, first the power supply died, and then it died. I took it to a store to see if it was just the power supply, but no, it died. So I sent it in to Microsoft for repair. Then I went to NJ. Then it came back right before Christmas. Assassin’s Creed just sitting there gathering dust, and me unable to play it!
Got back from NJ, booted it up, no dice. Yep, you guessed it – the power supply as well. Off to Game Xchange to find a used one, which they had. $50 later, I’m gaming again. Woot!
Unwoot. Yesterday, I boot it up. 3 red lights. Argh. Wait ten minutes, boot it and it starts. Awesome… must have been a fluke. Hmm… I hear the Xbox sounds, but no picture. Yep, you guessed it… the LCD it was connected to had a backlight blowout. To be fair, it’s 4 years old and… wait a tick, I have a 27″ tube TV in the other room I’ve had for 11 years. Fuck you, Dell!
Off to the store, buy another small TV. $400 later, I’m home with a nice new 19″ widescreen HDTV and ready to game! Plug it in, turn on the Xbox.
Fuck you, Microsoft! Hello, Xbox support… um, yeah, can you finish the repair on my 360 for me. Kthx.
I’m told the repair box is coming. Stay tuned.
Um, you may want to have someone come over and take apart that crib and put it together again. Just in case.
Who. You must have hit seventy to have enough time to create all that….
Love the toilet video.