So, I didn't actually write anything yesterday... Yeah, I suck and all that. I did however post the following to the Underworld forums:

"My problem with the VMAs is that they don't really reward the best VIDEOS at ALL. If we're really giving props to the best VIDEOS, then the awards should go to the DIRECTORS, CONCEPT CREATORS, CINEMATOGRAPHERS, COSTUMERS, MAKE UP ARTISTS, etc. just like at the Academy Awards. I mean, let's reward the most artistic videos rather than the most popular artists. Sure, you could have a couple of "Best Performance by a Musician/Band in a Video" categories, but giving a Video Music Award to 50 Cent just because his album was really popular doesn't mean that he made a quality VIDEO. Sitting around in a car surrounded by bikini-clad women shouldn't win you a VMA. Standing in a room naked, painted ghostly white, while red ribbon pours out of your nipples and wraps you in a cocoon SHOULD win you an award (ah, Bjork...).

Stupid MTV.
(And even MTV2 has become the HipHop channel...)"

As far as Student Teaching goes, well, if there is a computer at this beach house we are going to (in a couple of minutes), then I'll post something from there. If not, then I will write on Monday...

SO, it's 8:30pm and this is the first real chance that I've had to sit down and write anything here today. I'll elaborate on everything tomorrow. But, I will say, for now, that today was 180 degrees different from yesterday - I mean, today was REALLY good. Of this I am glad because I didn't want to be stewing about my student teaching placement all weekend while lounging around on Stinson Beach. [Yeah, we're finally getting out of town for a weekend. Our friend Michal knows someone who owns this beach house - we're going there to RELAX for a few days (sure, I relaxed all Summer long... but, I had to do it in this stinking apartment).] Now, I get to lie in the sun reading a book, with a beer nearby, and look forward to the rest of the semester.

Brian and I celebrated our finally being up to date on our bills, and on time with our rent (Thank you, Financial Aid!), tonight by getting a slice of pizza downtown AND stopping into Virgin so that I could by the latest Radiohead album ("Hail to the Thief"). So far, it's REALLY good.

So, I went to my Kindergarten class for the first time today... I'm physically and mentally exhausted, and that's all I really want to say at this point.

Well, let me just relay one story: The students were instructed to draw a picture of a boy in the class who had been named "Student of the Day", and there was this one little girl who still had an empty piece of paper while all the other students were on to other things. When I asked her why she hadn't drawn anything she said, "I can't draw him." I spent a good 15 minutes trying to convince her that she could at least give it try and that not all people are really good at drawing but have other things that they excell at - AND, no matter what, we should always try to do things even if we think that we won't be good at them. It wasn't until about half an hour ago that I realized that I need to follow my own advice...

Ok, I just really need to not be so hard on myself (I'm making this longer than I wanted to...). I REALLY hate starting new jobs because I REALLY hate the feeling of being in a completely foreign environment. I HATE the feeling of not having an answer to a question, or not being able to take care of a situation by myself, because I am completely unfamiliar with my surroundings. It was my first day in the room, the teacher and I don't know each other that well; I have NO IDEA what to do with an autistic child who falls to the floor when you try and hold her hand or runs around the room doing her own thing while the rest of the class is sitting quietly on the rug; I don't know where to intervene and where not to because I'm not sure if the teacher is a control freak (ok, I'm pretty sure that he is) and would prefer that things were done his way; I don't know what to say to other teachers in the school; I don't know what to say to, or how to behave around, parents; I don't know what my rights/legal limitations are on what I can or cannot do with a child who REFUSES to follow my directions; I can't stand packing a lunch because I'm not sure what I'm going to feel like eating hours down the road; I am a creature of HABIT who feels completely out of the loop. Plus, I swear to god that I have some blood sugar issues, or something - midway through the day I just completely lose steam - like I'm, literally, zapped of all energy (any nutritionists out there who could offer some advice?).

I just have to keep telling myself that it was only the first day - and not even my official start day, at that. I can't expect myself to be standing tall over all of the students with a whole week of lessons planned ON MY FIRST DAY. Even Miles said that he hates the first couple weeks of school - so why the hell am I beating myself up? Oh, that's right, because that's what I've ALWAYS done...

I got back about 20 minutes ago.

First, I had the initial meeting at Bryant Elementary with my supervisor from SFSU, and the guy that I'm going to be student teaching with (we'll, from here on out, call him Miles). Walking over there I felt REALLY sick to my stomach - honestly, I went to the bathroom 3 times this morning (and I'm normally one who just goes to the bathroom ONCE in the morning, right after waking up). When I got there, thanks to the overactive sweat glands I got from my parents (from whom I also got overactive sinuses and an overactive hair growth gene...), I was DRIPPING all over the place. When I finally got introduced to Miles, I was quite surprised - mainly because, in person, he looked NOTHING like the MINUTE picture on the Bryant Elementary website. Photo: heavyset, balding brunette. In person: cute, skinny blonde. Honestly (I must really feel like being honest today), I was intimidated when he walked in the room - he just had SO MUCH ENERGY. I thought, "There's no way that I'm going to be able to keep up with this guy." He immediately shouted out, "Anyone like some water?!", and he zipped over to a cabinet, grabbed some mugs, and began filling them from the water cooler. But, when the meeting was over and we walked to the classroom (my home away from home for the next 3 1/2 months), my fears began to wane ("wane" is emptying and "wax" is filling up, right?). I honestly (there we go again with the honesty) don't think that I could've been placed with someone that I could have better "chemistry" with. I mean, he's just a really approachable guy whose ideas and suggestions I really think will be quite valuable. Oh, and I was debating for awhile about what I wanted the kids to call me - "Mr. Barbus"? "Mr. B"? "Eric"? I had sort of decided that I wanted to go more "formal", just because classroom management is the one thing that I REALLY want to work on, and "Mr. Barbus" would really help to set up the "authoritarian" aire that you have to have for the first few weeks of the school year. But, Miles said the kids call him by his first name, and he's dead set on setting up a classroom that thrives on mutual respect. He said that he wants to treat the kids like little adults, and that is COMPLETELY the way that I see it, too, so... I'm going with "Eric". Beyond that, he seems to have a classroom management system/style that will be really interesting to see - again, a system/style that gells with what I believe. I'll make up my mind when I see it in practice. Oh, and Miles said that he's got both a girl with CP and a girl with autism - something that he's never dealt with before - both will be REALLY interesting to see/work with.
So, yeah, the meeting started at 2:15 and went only until 3pm. I ended up staying with Miles in his/our room until 5:30pm. I'm not sure if all of the other student teachers spent that much time talking with their Master Teachers, but it felt really good to get to talk about stuff for that long on first meeting. I was complaining a couple of days ago here about how the school day at Bryant starts at 7:50am - well, apparently the Kindergarteners don't start until 8:50am (yet, still leave at 1:50pm with the other kids...). Miles mentioned that he still gets to school at 7:30am every morning, so I said that I would do the same. Even though student teaching doesn't "officially" start until September 2nd (Tuesday), I'm going tomorrow and Thursday, just to really feel things out and get a sense of how the classroom works. Miles said that he's already going to put me to work tomorrow, which I welcome because I know myself, and I know that I could easily fall into a spectator role. A woman who was doing her Student Teaching at the time came and visited one of my classes last Spring - her words of wisdom: Go into the experience believing that YOU ARE the teacher. Those words have stuck with me ever since, and are the best advice that I could've asked for.

SO, after saying goodbye to Miles, I hopped on the Bryant bus for the few short blocks between Bryant and... BEST BUY where (OF COURSE) I picked up a copy of "the Lord of the Rings: THE TWO TOWERS" on DVD! It's in the DVD player right now! Upon arriving home, I tore the thing opened and skipped through to a couple of my favorite parts (See Gandalf fight the Balrog! Meet Treebeard! Watch Frodo fall into the Marshes! Mourn with Theoden as he buries his son!).

Ok, it's been a hour or so since I wrote the above (Brian got home and we ate dinner). While we ate hot dogs, I popped in the bonus disc and we watched the preview of the "Two Towers: Extended Edition" - man, the clips of the added scenes REALLY look amazing - like they will ABSOLUTELY add to the enjoyment of the movie. We also watched the preview of the "Return of the King" - there were at least 3 times where I found tears coming to my eyes. Just, whoa. Off to watch some more before "Boy Meets Boy" starts...

It's too hot to sit here and type (it's really too hot to do anything), so I'm going to keep this short today.

I just got back from a meeting at State and found out that I'll be Student Teaching with the male Kindergarten teacher that I requested. Whew. Actually, I suppose I shouldn't celebrate yet since I've never met the guy and just went along on someone else's recommendation. Our supervisor from State is going to meet with us at Bryant tomorrow at 2:15pm to introduce us to our teachers and the school Principal. Then, I should be able to go back to Bryant Wednesday and Thursday, and then start "for real" next Tuesday (Monday is a holiday...). One of my worries is that this teacher is going to be SO kick butt that I will feel completely inferior no matter what I do. Something that I did wrong during my first Student Teaching experience back in 1993 was to try to imitate the Master teacher - this I vow not to do this time around.

A little more about Reichen & Chip winning Amazing Race: I'm glad that they won because they got to use their victory as a platform/soapbox for gay relationships. It THRILLED me to hear them talk about how they wanted to show the world that gay couples are just like heterosexual couples - the love and support shared between two men or two women who are deeply in love is the same as that shared between a man and a woman. Bravo, and right on.

Ok, ok - I've kept you in suspense long enough - YES, we did get the satellite dish back up and working (thanks to Tim and Eve) by the time that "Sex & the City" started. If we hadn't been able to re-align it, I wouldn't have been responsible for my actions. Seriously.

They're talking about Hitchcock on Larry King Live. Janet Leigh is there and she looks like a skeleton in a bad wig.

Ok, LAST STRAW! Or, as Popeye [anyone remember the one Popeye cartoon where Olive was singing the "If I Were President" song - and there were donkeys and elephants yelling, "We accept it!" and "We reject it!"? The other one that I remember is where Popeye is searching for some big jewel in a box, and everytime the box is opened the whole screen goes the color of the jewel (red? green?) and this tinkling music comes on (I could hum it for you but that would really do us no good here...)] would say, "I've had all I can stand and I can't stands no more." So, we're kind of milling around the apartment, CNN is the white noise I often have around - if a good news story comes on I'll go into the room and watch. Suddenly, Brian walks through the room and notices that the TV screen is black with the dreaded "Satellite Signal Lost" message - yes, the one that we know only too well (well, you would know it well if you read this page a few weeks ago...). Immediately, we run to look out the NEW backporch window only to see that the old guy HAS TAKEN DOWN OUR SATELLITE DISH!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!? I SWEAR, it's not an issue of my wanting to watch anything right now (although, I'm sure I could find something to watch...), it the principle behind it all. Hi, that dish is SO not your property. In fact, it really isn't our property either - really, we're renting it from the satellite company and if anything should happen to it while it is in our care WE would be responsible for whatever replacement costs there may be. SO, if you need to do something to the building that would require the REMOVAL of our dish, JUST TELL US! How could the old guy NOT TELL US he was going to take the dish down. Man, I'm ticked. I REALLY want to go out there and give the guy a piece of my mind but Brian had convinced me that there is nothing we can do - it's down, and yelling at the guy wouldn't do anything at this point, especially since he doesn't understand English.

Ok, the whole IRONY of the situation is that not an hour ago, BRIAN SIGNED US UP FOR HBO. Why? So that we could watch this past week's "Sex & the City" tonight, and all of the remaining episodes from this point on. All of that is now in jeopardy SINCE OUR DISH IS LYING IN A HEAP ON THE GROUND!

[A side note about the acquistion of HBO - I'm excited because there is this show coming on called "Carnivale". Looks GOOD, like it might be a good Buffy replacement. I've also got that feeling like I did before "Felicity" started where it feels like it could become my new favorite show...]

Ok, having a small amount of trouble breathing... Read THIS! Holy cow. Someone is listening to my hopes and dreams - the Extended Edition versions of "Fellowship of the Ring" and "Two Towers" re-released in theatres, and THEN, an ALL DAY marathon of the three movies back-to-back-to-back. Whew. Merry Christmas to me.

Old Man Update: I'm getting emails left and right saying "So, what's up with the old guy who's working on the back porch? You talked about him for a couple of days and then... nothing. What's up with that?" Ok, no one has actually emailed me asking about the old man, but I'm going to talk about him anyway. Yeah, he's still here - A WEEK LATER. Actually, he didn't show up this morning, but he has been coming every morning (typically between 8 and 9am), doing some work, adding to the hellacious mess that is the back half of our apartment, and then leaving without a thought to the unbelievable mess that is the back half of our apartment. Honestly, it's completely disgusting. There is a THICK layer of some mixture of sawdust, old moldy wood, drywall dust, and run-of-the-mill dust covering every surface in our kitchen. Thing is, I'm 99% sure that when this guy FINALLY finishes his "work" he will shut the door behind him and never look back at the HUGE mess he has made. WE will be stuck cleaning up after his ass. Yesterday I asked him how much longer he would be and I'm pretty sure he said, "Two more days." Well, since he didn't show up today, I'm assuming that now means he should be done on Sunday. He'd better be done on Sunday. It's just been incredibly inconvenient. I know that may sound petty, but I like having free access to our CLEAN kitchen without having to constantly push aside (and then push back) a bookcase. If we lived in a cool, old castle it might be fun in a "where-does-the-secret-passage-lead?" kind of way, but here it's just a pain in the butt. Plus, I'm REALLY sick of having the cats' litterbox in the bathroom. The feeling of stepping on cat litter when getting out of the shower is nasty - it makes me want to jump right back in and scrub the bottoms of my feet raw. Just ick.

So, "Boy Meets Boy". Well, I may hold out on writing about it until next week when we see the finale. Right now, let me just say that I'm intrigued. Oh, and I was totally duped. The previews for this week showed the (hideously over-madeup) hostess saying, "ONE of the guys is straight." Well, naturally I assumed that that meant that only ONE of the last SIX guys was straight. When they started the champagne glass ceremony without showing her say these words to James I immediately yelled out, "Darn! Franklin is straight!" And, seeing the previews for the final episode, my feelings about the show are swinging back to how I initially felt about the premise: How freakin' dare they? What a really awful "twist" - why do some of the guys need to be straight? When we got see a glimpse at Audra bawling screaming out, "This is BULL***T!", I really sympathized with her and James. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised to see James, next week, saying, "How dare you do this to me? I'm out of here..." At the very least, I hope that they have a follow up show so that we can see what James really felt about the whole experience. We'll see next week.

My schoolmate Monica and her girlfriend were over watching "Queer Eye" and "Boy Meets Boy" this week. To label Monica's girlfriend "butch" is a bit of an understatement. Honestly, she's way more masculine than I will EVER be. During both shows she kept saying, "I just can't stand effeminate men." Hmm. Think about that one for a second...

So, we saw "American Splendor" at the free screening the other night. Yep... we saw it... I didn't really get what all of the fuss was about. It was good, but, ultimately, I really wasn't all that engaged by this guy's story, I thought the performaces bordered on parody (which, I suppose could've been the point...), and it didn't strike me as being as "revolutionary" as I had read it was. Things really can be over-hyped. OH, and, yes, the screening was filled with the usual losers. I remembered, though, that there was once a time when I considered it a badge of honor that I went to ALL of the free screeings that IU had my freshman year (which included Jamie Lee Curtis in "Blue Steel", and that gem in Travolta's crown "Look Who's Talking"...). Heck, I didn't know very many people, I didn't have any money, and had most of my nights free. Ok, I was a loser...

REICHEN & CHIP WIN! REICHEN & CHIP WIN!!

I just suddenly got 8 emails from addresses that I don't recognize, all with HUGE attachments, and even a "Mail Delivery Error" message saying that a message I NEVER SENT couldn't be delivered to some guy that I've never heard of. I'm guessing it's all part of a "worm" that's going around. Even though we have Macs, and are probably immune, I feel so violated and vulnerable...

We've got a pass to a FREE screening of "American Splendor" this evening. I've heard nothing about it, except how wonderful it is, so I'm looking forward to it. I'm getting there an hour and a half early to (hopefully) beat out the lonely losers who snap up free screening passes at every opportunity - even for movies they would, normally, have no interest in seeing. These are typically the same people who bring their own HUMONGOUS bags of popcorn. Cheap and rude.

Monday afternoon Tara (who doesn't update her blog nearly as often as I do - true, she has a job and has been battling viral meningitis, but...) called me up and mentioned that she'd like someone to accompany her to her first day of classes that evening. She's planning on leaving the world of publishing and pursue a lifelong dream of nursing so she's got to take a few classes in order to apply for/get into nursing programs. I had nothing else to do, so I decided it would be fun to go and see what the SF Community College campus was like. Well, let me tell you, the campus is like (as Eve described it today) the "set" of one of those really creepy horror videogames. You know, like "Silent Hill" or "Resident Evil" - overcast with THICK fog, very little landscaping, and buildings that look like they've barely survived a war. Eerie.

My student loan money was direct deposited into our account today, AND, BRIAN FINALLY FOUND A JOB!! He's going to be a computer lab specialist for the Academy of Art College. It's not the best paying gig in town, but it's steady work, and Brian can work on computery stuff of his own while he's there. This sudden surge of funds make me wish I had bought more yesterday at Amoeba than just the new Over the Rhine. The limited edition reissue of Bowie's UNDERRATED "Black Tie White Noise" and the latest David Sylvian album ("Blemish") both wanted to come home with me. Really, I held them in my hands and they whispered, "It feels right. Take us home." Maybe I'll be able to look into adopting them this weekend. First priority is getting a haircut. Oh, and there's the whole matter of being 2-3 months behind on all of our bills that we might want to look into...

Oh, I forgot to mention that, at the meeting, I ran into a bunch of people in the Credential program that I hadn't seen at all in the last 3 months. Many said that they went to Hawaii, Mexico, New York, Disneyland, etc. over the Summer. One woman asked me what I did all Summer and I replied, "I went from my bed to the computer to the TV and then back to bed." She thought I was joking.

Yeah, I had the meeting today where I found out where I'm going to be student teaching, but, first thing's first:

HOW BADLY DID "BATTLE OF THE NETWORK STARS" SUCK?!? For one, it really should've been called "Battle of the NBC Stars" because it wasn't even a competition between NBC, ABC, and CBS (as it was in the days of yore), instead, it was just two teams of people from various NBC shows. Second, it really should've been called, "Battle of the NBC C-LISTERS". I wouldn't refer to the woman from the Doritos commercials, a guy from "Hidden Hills" (Is that show still on?), or Mario Lopez as "stars". Gabe Kaplan and Adrienne Barbeau - now THEY are stars. Last (and then I'll move on to more important topics), what's with all of the "extreme" events. I don't want to see people swinging over cliffs or rolling big balls down a hill - give me the tried-and-true obstacle course, tug-'o-war, and "Simon Sez".

I'm feeling a bit beat up at the moment. I got up "early" this morning so that I could go to heaven (i.e. Amoeba) to pick up the new Over the Rhine cd (which I'm listening to right now - it's GOOD) before my Student Teaching Orientation meeting. So, I ate a small bowl of Chex (corn) and a yogurt (strawberry cheescake flavor - yum) before catching a bus to Haight Street. Then, when I got down to SFSU for the meeting I had a large coffee on a largely empty stomach. Sure, I had a smoothie a bit later, but the damage had already been done. Oh, and add to that the fact that my stomach was doing flips and turns and filled with butterflies because of the whole "I'm here for a meeting about Student Teaching which kind of freaks me out" thing.
Long story short, I got placed at Bryant Elementary School which, thankfully (THANKFULLY!) is only about 4 blocks from our apartment. It's especially cool that the school is so close because they start the day at 7:50 AM (I was hoping that I'd get an 8:50 AM school...) - doesn't that seem REALLY early? A couple of other cool things: Monica (from my Cohort/program) got placed at the same school - at least there will be a familiar face - and, a woman who was at the meeting told me that there is a GREAT male Kindergarten teacher at the school. So, I told the supervisor woman (who will be finding specific classrooms for us this weekend) that I wanted to be placed with this guy. Fingers crossed... What REALLY sucks, though, is that San Francisco public schools start THIS MONDAY, and we won't be officially going out to the school until later next week. Officially, they aren't requiring us to start until September 2nd which is incredibly ridiculous to me. I really want to be in my classroom on the first day of school, AND, it seems like it would be a good thing to be able to talk with the Master Teacher before s/he starts the year. So much for that. When I did my student teaching in Indiana (gulp, 10 years ago...), I knew the Spring BEFORE where I was going to be - so, I attended district meetings with the teacher, and got to help her set up the classroom over the Summer. [I'll get into/describe that student teaching experience some other time... Soon, though...]

I have the meeting tomorrow where I find out where I've been placed for Student Teaching. I'm starting to get nervous. I'm excited, but really VERY nervous.

(That's all for today. I posted on Saturday, so I'm going to count that one for today...)

I'm afraid to turn on the TV (wow, I've NEVER said that before). I didn't pay DishNetwork the remaining, outstanding balance on our account yesterday. I feel bad because I promised the nice supervisor lady that I would before she so kindly turned our service back on ("I'm the only person that will do this for you but you will have to pay the remainder on Friday.") In my defense, I DID warn her that I wouldn't get my unemployment check until Friday (yesterday), and thus, the money probably wouldn't be available until Monday, but, she wouldn't listen. Because my check didn't come yesterday (please come today, please come today, please come today), I couldn't call and pay them because it would've drained us dry. I'm just hoping that we have satellite service tonight so that I can watch "Battle of the Network Stars"! Yeah, it will probably be a DISASTER of EPIC proportions, but I just have such fond memories of watching it (and "Circus of the Stars") in my youth.

So, the old guy ended up "working" until 8:15PM! So as not to detract from Amazing Race, I paused it and watched it on a half an hour delay. DAMN that show is EXCITING! Anyway, when the old guy left last night he said something about coming back at 7:30am. He must've been able to decipher the look on my face because he then said, "Ok, 8."
Well, we set an alarm for 8am and 8am came and went, and 9am came and went, and 10am came and went. He didn't show up until 11:30!! What the hell did we get up so god-awfully early for? Actually, it's probably for the best - I really need to practice getting up early again. Old guy was here for an hour or so and then disappeared (leaving the back door open, of course!). It's now 4pm and Brian just went out to look for him - he said the old guy was sitting next door eating a mango. Whatever. Yeah, that's alright, we've just got a GAPING hole in the back of our apartment and a layer of filth now covering every surface and item in our kitchen - take the day off!

You've got to LOVE the internet. I mean, just, BLESS THE INTERNET. I'm currently downloading "Soundtrack", a track that clocks in at 30:15, which NewOrder recorded to be played in the gallery where a Peter Saville retrospective is going on (outside of the folks at v23, he's the BEST). I'd LOVE to own an original copy of the track, but we just don't have the money right now for me to be emailing London and spending $22 on one song. But, believe me, if we had the money (no, WHEN we HAVE the money) I would (WILL) SO buy it.

Ah, another Friday night with nothing to do and no money to do anything with. Scrabble, anyone?

Random Quote of the Day: "It's a Jewish wedding. I look like Hitler!" - Charlotte, on this week's "Sex & the City".

Ok, so it is now 7:45pm and the old guy is STILL back there sawing and hammering away! WHAT THE HELL?!? True, there was no sign of him for about 3 hours this afternoon (we kind of thought that he took off for the day and left a HUGE mess in the kitchen - not that we have any confidence that he will clean up after himself when he finally does leave...), and we still don't have a back wall to our apartment, but, how long is this guy going to hang around?? Plus, there is NO WAY this guy gets paid overtime (I kind of feel sorry for him). HOWEVER, I can't be responsible for my actions if his demolition distracts from my enjoyment of AMAZING RACE...

Ok, so now they are saying that the massive power outages are LIKELY not an act of terrorism, but I'm still freaked out...

Alright, so a few weeks ago we were taking out the trash and this one old guy who's been destroying the other apartments around us said that our landlord wanted to replace our back window. Actually, as he said this, he pointed to a window that was leaning against the end of the building - oh, so you were already PLANNING on doing it without our knowledge. Great. Brian ran into the landlord a couple of weeks back and gave him our phone number (which he asks for EVERY time we see him...) so that he could call and let us know what was up with the replacement of the window. In the meantime, the apartment next to us has appeared to be empty, with the guy (did I mention that he's pretty old?) dragging huge sheets of drywall up our rickety back stairs (yeah, the ones that they ended up tearing out without telling us) by himself. The apartment's back door has been wide open so I've seen what they've done to it - they gutted the "porch" room, replaced the windows, and put up new drywall. Plus, they've been hammering in there for weeks, at times SO violently that I expected to see a hammer attached to an arm come busting through our hallway wall.
Anyway, with our August rent check I sent a note that said, "We hear murmurings (exact word I used) of your intentions of replacing our back window. We are on board for this, but we have questions about the amount of time it will take and the potential mess it could cause. Please call us to discuss your intentions with this project. Here's our phone number..." We never heard from him - no call whatsoever.
Cut to Tuesday at 5:30pm: the old guy knocks on our back door and says they want to start working on the back porch tomorrow (Wednesday) morning. With only 14 hours notice? Nope. Don't think so. We try to convey to the guy (did I mention that both the old guy and our landlord only speak Spanish?) that that won't work for us and they really shouldn't come until Thursday morning (today) at the earliest. Well, this morning he knocked on the door, and then proceeded to knock down the walls of our enclosed porch. Did I mention that the porch on the back of our THIRD FLOOR apartment, which is connected to our kitchen by only a DOOR FRAME (there is no door), now has NO WALLS? I also asked the guy (or, again, tried to convey to the guy) that I would like a piece of plastic put up in the door frame between the porch and the kitchen so that (a.) it isn't exposed to the OUTDOORS, and (b.) so that debris (of which there is A LOT already) wouldn't get on all or our appliances and in our food. Apparently my hand signals need some working on because I see no plastic. Oh, and he has left our back door (off of the kitchen) WIDE OPEN. He just came back an hour ago, after having been gone for a couple of hours, and he had left the back door open the entire time. This morning, while Brian was getting himself some breakfast before rushing off to a temp job, he said to me, "Be sure and wear some shoes when you go into kitchen because the old guy was violently ripping a board off the wall and it flew back and broke a pane of glass in one of the windows." Sure enough, when I went back to the kitchen a few hours later (yes, when the guy was gone for a couple of hours and had left the back door WIDE open), there was STILL glass on the floor. All of those tools and no broom and dustpan?
My MAJOR concern (yeah, there's more) is for the cats. Sam is alright - I kind of figured that he would be so traumatized that he would just hide under the bed all day. Macon, however... Oh, sweet Macon. It's a miracle that curiosity has not yet killed this cat. Just yesterday when I went to take out the trash (we had to completely empty out the back porch - it was kind of like the beginning of "Changing Rooms" and "Trading Spaces" where they say, "Let's unload the room and get started!"), I opened our back door and, too late, noticed that the back door to the next door apartment was wide open. Flash of white fur, and I'm crawling over drywall and 2x4s in this empty (?) apartment looking for Macon. The solution? Well, right now, I pushed one of our bookcases into the doorway that leads back to the kitchen. That way, this guy can LEAVE THE BACK DOOR open while he works. I guess we'll just have to push the bookcase in front of the doorway to the backporch every night until he's done working on it - which, I'm afraid, could take awhile. Heck, he started working on ours while the one next door is WAY unfinished.

Ok. I'm a bit freaked. Richard just called from New York to see if we had power. I turned on CNN to find that NEW YORK CITY, DETROIT, CLEVELAND, TORONTO, ETC. ARE ALL COMPLETELY WITHOUT POWER. I'm going to start crying...

It's 8am and a guy is here to tear the hell out of our back "porch". I'll elaborate on this when I WAKE UP...

I will not watch "The O.C." I will not watch "The O.C." I will not watch "The O.C." I don't care if EVERYONE is talking about it around "the watercooler", I will not watch "The O.C."... even though the temptation is strong. VERY STRONG...

(Post something everyday. Post something everyday. Post something everyday...)

Wow. I really can't think of anything to jot down today. Hmmm [racks brain]...

Oh, some thoughts on the new "gay" Bravo shows.

I put off watching "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" until Kelly told me that it was her favorite show. I don't know, I guess I was initially put off by the use of the word "queer" because, well, I think it's kind of an offensive term. Sure, there's the whole "We're taking the word back, turning it around, and empowering ourselves with it now" attitude, but... I still don't really like it. Then, there's the whole validation of stereotypes surrounding gay men - you know, we're all impeccibly dressed, we're experts on fine vintage wines, our apartments are clean, well-designed, coordinated, and "gallery-like", we're tuned into all the latest hip, cultural trends (actually, we are trend-FORWARD!), etc. I'm still wearing stuff that I got from Goodwill back in 1994, wine gives me a headache and makes me sleepy, our apartment is a DUMP with cat hairballs in every possible corner, we've still got hand-me-down furniture from old college roommates, and hip-hop and the whole "electro-clash, reliving the '80" subcultures give me a headache and make me sleepy. Am I not a REAL gay man? Do I need to be given a "Queer Eye for the Queer Guy" makeover? All of that having been said, I watched it last night for the first time and... gulp... kind of liked it. Really though, except for the blonde "FASHION-EXPERT" guy (who is HILARIOUS), and the dark-haired "GROOMING-EXPERT" guy (who is CUTE), I didn't find them all that compelling or feel that I should really trust their judgement. And, do they really need the dark-haired "CULTURE-EXPERT" guy (who is BLAND)? Yeah. Ok. I'll watch it again.

As far as "Boy Meets Boy" goes? Well, I'M HOOKED. I was REALLY disheartened and offended when I heard that there were going to be straight guys pretending to be gay in the mix - why does there have to be a TWIST? I'm afraid that the TWIST will distract from what the REAL focus of the show should be. I mean, why can't we just have a guy looking for love amongst a group of nice, attractive gay men? Plus, I like me my "reality shows" but CAN'T STAND dating shows. Do you really think that you are going to find the love of your life on a gameshow? And, why in the hell would you agree to marry someone on national TV that your kids/parents/friends/ex-lovers/etc. chose for you? STUPID. However, this gay dating show is kind of a landmark, and I'm intrigued by what the straight guys are saying after they get the boot (of course, they could always be getting fed a script, but...). True, I'm a bit ticked that that there have been, what, like 5 (FIVE) confirmed straight guys SO FAR. From the previews for next week, it looks as though there is a least one more - did we really need to stick THAT MANY straight guys in the mix? That would be ONE THIRD, where I think that one or two straight guys could've sufficed. All of that having been said, I'm rooting for FRANKLIN. GO, FRANKLIN (and, please don't turn out to be straight...)!

Guess where I just got back from? Guess. HeadStart! TaDa! I went! Unfortunately, the contact woman that I had there was out of the office today. Figures.

So, I just about had to change my boxer shorts. I JUST got home and walked back to the kitchen to get something to drink (It's a SCORCHER out there!) and I hear "Hi" - it freaked me out. I didn't expect Brian to be here because he temped today and it isn't even 5pm yet. CRAZY MAN WILSON strikes again!

Watch the trailer for this movie called "DUMMY". As if the fact that it stars Adrien Brody (I saw him first!) isn't reason enough to go see it, Milla (Ok, if you haven't heard her album [The Divine Comedy] you're doing yourself a great disservice. It's REALLY good.) and Illeana Douglas are in it and it looks REALLY funny. Plus, ADRIEN BRODY is in it.

Have you SEEN Mars yet? If not, DO IT TONIGHT. Your next chance to see it this close-up again won't be until 2287. (In case it hasn't dawned on you yet, that's a LONG time from now...)

I woke up this morning and turned on the TV to watch "A Makeover Story" on TLC and found out that our satellite service had been shut off due to non-payment. I went online, checked our bank balance, figured out that we could get away with paying the minimum in order to get our service restored and then remembered what DishNetwork told me last month: "You can only pay the minimum to have your satellite service restored ONE TIME. Next time, you'll have to pay the balance IN FULL in order for us to resume your service..." CRAP. Well, they underestimated the power of ME - I've been working my charms and spouting sob stories for YEARS - it got me through college. The first guy that I talked to told me that there was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING he could do as the computer wouldn't accept any payment lower than the total balance. I asked to speak to a supervisor. Well, you just KNOW that there is ALWAYS a way around standard operating procedure - please, don't treat me like an amateur! The supervisor told me there was nothing that she could do and I said, "Well, could I play a 'Get Out of Jail Free' card?" Then, I launched into the tale of the repairperson coming out a couple of weeks ago without the replacement receiver that we were promised (for the whole story, go back a couple of weeks' posts). SURE ENOUGH, she broke down. I paid half of what we owe and promised to pay the other half on Friday - which I'm PRETTY SURE we can handle financially...

On this morning's "A Dating Story" on TLC, this guy took his date skydiving. It made me REALLY want to do it again. A couple of years ago, when we might have been able to afford it, I called a couple of places around the Bay Area that do skydiving just to get some prices. I couldn't find a place that did static line jumps, though - that's what I did back in Indiana and it was AMAZING. I just don't want to jump out of a plane strapped to someone else. That's just weird. Plus, it would ruin the whole solitary/meditative aspect of the whole experience.

I'm sick of all of the California recall election coverage and I LIVE IN CALIFORNIA. I can't imagine how annoying it would be to someone who doesn't even live here. It's one of CNN's Top Stories every hour. Oh, and they showed the results of some lousy poll yesterday that said that a majority of registered voters would vote for Schwarzen-crapper. Well, of course they would since you're providing him with ALL of this free publicity! I think "True Lies" is a kick butt movie, but I so don't want that conservative bastard as my Governor. Heck, I wouldn't even vote for Keri Russell.

Sickness is quickly waning. No joking, I went through a roll and a half of toilet paper in two days by blowing my nose every 2 minutes. It was REALLY annoying, and REALLY disgusting. Saturday morning some really amazing stuff came out of my nasal passages - CREEPY stuff...

Speaking of sickness, my heart goes out to Taragirl who is currently battling viral meningitis. It really sounds awful and I'm going to go visit her today to make sure she's doing ok - which means, I may have to put HeadStart off until tomorrow (BUT, I'm going to try to work it into the plan - I SWEAR!).

Jason called yesterday morning and we ended up going down to Redwood City in his Jeep - top down and all. It felt SO GOOD to get out of this city and see some nature - I had forgotten what trees and grass look like. AND, I got some sun - so I look kind of healthy and human again. The purpose of our trek? A recently discovered DAIRY QUEEN! I kid you not! I haven't had Dairy Queen in YEARS - we didn't even think that there were any in the area. To celebrate our discovery I thought I would get the quintessential DQ treat - a dipped cone. We asked what flavors they had and the counter girl (who were always the COOL girls at the DQ that I grew up with in Northwest Indiana) said, "Chocolate, Butterscotch, and COTTON CANDY". To which I immediately exclaimed something like, "OH YEAH!" or "UH HUH!" or "THAT'S RIGHT!" or something along those lines. What did I end up getting? (Actually, the question should probably be "WHY did I end up getting...?") A cone with CHOCOLATE ice cream dipped in the COTTON CANDY flavoured dip. Where was my head? What was I thinking? The first few bites were DISGUSTINGLY DELICIOUS, and then they just started to be DISGUSTING. I actually had flashbacks to the Monopoly cereal that was previously described here (see posts from a couple of weeks ago...) - the cotton candy dip was BRIGHT pink and, for SOME ODD reason, WOULDN'T HARDEN - that really should've been my first clue.
Well, we ended up getting back in the Jeep and taking this little winding road across to Half Moon Bay. Along the way, it was stop-and-go traffic, and sitting there baking under the hot California Summer Sun... well, let's just say that I felt all rumbly in my tumbly - like, EXTREMELY nauseous. But, then, we hit the ocean - the HUGE, EXPANSIVE ocean - and I couldn't think of anything but how incredibly beautiful California can be.

Brian and I climbed up and around Bernal Hill (we live just a few blocks from it) Saturday night. (By the way, if you've gone to the link that I provided with the pictures of/from Bernal Hill - which I hope you have since I don't go to the trouble of providing links for my own good health - I didn't take those pictures. I just found them online by doing a google search. I have no idea who "MonkeyView" is. I'm sure s/he is a perfectly wonderful person - the people in the photos look lovely and fun - but I am not "MonkeyView".) I brought along the digital camera that he got us for Christmas (which we STILL can't afford) and took some arty, long exposure shots of the lights of the city. Some of them came out REALLY well - just swirls of different coloured lights on a black background. VERY urban. If I can figure out how to post pictures on this blog I'll put one of them up.
Oh, and we climbed around in some scary, really dark wooded areas and Brian made fun of me because I was a bit frightened. I told him that if he had grown up with the stories of Crazy Man Wilson running around killing people in the Indiana Dunes State Park, then he'd be a little nervous walking through wooded areas, too. He asked me if my father was the one who would tell us these stories, and when I said that I thought so he replied, "Do you think your dad had ANY idea how much he was screwing you up back then?" I didn't have an answer.

My runny nose has turned into MAJOR SICKNESS. Ugh - I feel REALLY nasty.

And Brian won't make dinner for me. Jerk.

So, no, I didn't go down to HeadStart yesterday...

But, I DID -

1. Get a cashier's check for rent and mail that off.
2. Drop off the old satellite receiver at a UPS pick-up spot.
3. Collect all of our paper recycling, bag it up, and take it out to the curb.

That all constitutes an accomplishment, right? I'm still planning on going down to HeadStart today, but my nose, for some unknown reason, REFUSES to stop running this morning, so I don't know if I'm going to make it.

Alright, how many times can I say that Amazing Race is the greatest show? Did you see last night's? Walking through a tank of sharks?! When Reichen almost tipped over and started waving his arms to gain balance while a shark was swimming by and they went to commercial - holy cow - I couldn't breathe. I, literally, stopped breathing for 15 seconds. Then, I zipped through the commercials (you gotta love the PVR) to see if Reichen got his arm chomped off. THEN, when Reichen & Chip jumped in the car to head to the pitstop I was yellling at the screen, "IT CLEARLY STATED THAT YOU NEEDED TO 'PROCEED ON FOOT' TO THE NEXT PITSTOP!!" Of course, the way the show is edited it made it look like the Clowns might actually beat R & C because of the penalty they got for NOT PROCEEDING BY FOOT (geez, guys - read the directions CLOSELY). Amazing, indeed.

So, if it's possible to recall a Governor, what does it take to recall a President? Ahem. Just curious...

This morning I had a dream that we went to see the touring production of "CHICAGO" that's in town right now, but instead of getting to see Kevin Richardson (yes, from the Backstreet Boys - I would LOVE to see this), John Stamos played the part of Billy Flynn instead. What did I have to eat last night...?

Brian's brother, Chris, just called to let us know that Laura had the baby tonight -

WE'RE UNCLES!!

Welcome to the world, DILLON TOLLE!

Hopefully, Dillon, (when my student loan check comes) you'll be the proud owner of this outfit.
(Is that not the CUTEST thing? "Baa"!)

You represent... naivete.
So innocent and trusting... you can be very shy at
times, but it's only because you're not sure
how to act. You give off that "I need to
be protected vibe." Remember that not all
people are good. Being too trusting will get
you easily hurt.


What feeling do you represent?
brought to you by Quizilla

LONG LIVE QUENTIN!!

I found out that I'm not a member of "middle America" last night. Well, alright, from a very early age I knew that I wasn't a middle American, but last night was another proof - Tess only got 7% (SEVEN PERCENT) of the vote. I am in league with only 7% of the population of this world (well, of the people who watched "Last Comic Standing"). She cracked me up. They showed some of her bits from along the road to the final 5 and I snickered more than once - more than I can say for some of those other turkeys.
As far as Dat winning? Well, it was a surprise to me - it was even surprising that he made it to the final two. He really wasn't the funniest person on that show, but, I've got to give him credit. He's the one who got me to watch the show in the first place. Back when they aired the first episode, I was flipping around through the channels and saw Dat talking (in a "diary" talk to the camera) about how his family, after moving here from Vietnam, were DIRT poor. He said that he would have to translate for his mother when they were at the wellfare office. Tears welling in his eyes he said, "I would have to beg for enough money so that we could eat that night. A child should not have to go through that. I'm here because I won't ever be poor again - I CAN'T be poor ever again..." I was BAWLING and had to keep watching to see if this guy actually made it very far. Well, here's hoping that he gets his own show (without all of the "my mother is a crazy Vietnamese lady" stuff) that ends up being at least a minor hit (can't be worse than half of the crap on TV these days - every summer when the networks announce their fall lineups I see many names that make me go, "THAT show is still on the air? Who watches that show?" Take, for instance, "Becker". That show is still on? Who watches that show? Shows like that continue on while CLASSICS like "FELICITY" and "ONCE & AGAIN" get the can... whatever...). The American dream, indeed...

No, I didn't go down to HeadStart today. TOMORROW! I SWEAR! I did, however, go down and pay the minimum on our PG&E bill - we were in danger of losing our electricity in the next couple of days. Can't go without Amazing Race tomorrow night...

Downloaded a bunch of new songs today (Oh, please! I've got a thousand CDs on my shelves! I've contributed my share to the music industry - it's about time I got something back...). I got a bunch of Coldplay b-sides (still waiting for a super long mix of "Clocks" to download) - geez, even their b-sides kick butt (there's one called "One I Love" [not an REM cover] that you must hear NOW). I'm glad they've gotten a bunch of airplay because they are a band that totally deserve all of their success.
I also got a couple of Sarah McLachlan songs I didn't have, one being a cover of "Rainbow Connection". Brian played Kermit's version the other day and I immediately swung around and said, "Are you trying to make me CRY?" Slowly, I turned back to my computer and let the tears gather in my eyes. That song is a KILLER.

I caught the last few minutes of Oprah yesterday (why is it on at 3pm on Mondays, and 4pm the rest of the week??) and she was showing clips from past "makeover" shows. I don't know if you know this about me, but I am a SUCKER for makeover shows. LOVE 'EM. It just always breaks me up to see these dowdy/frumpy people come out looking all hip and contemporary. And, when the people start saying things like, "I just feel so good about myself now"... oh, the tears begin to flow. The interesting thing about yesterday's show was that the clips were from 1986 and 1989, and, I SWEAR TO GOD, the "After" shots of these people (when they were all madeover) looked like the "BEFORE" shots from makeover shows today. Brian and I came to the conclusion that makeover shows don't make people "look better", they just bring people up to the present.

Oh, on today's Oprah she's going to be giving people's homes design makeovers (MAKEOVERS!) by only shopping for replacement items at WALMART! "Oh, you're going to give us new couches and curtains from WalMart. Hmm, umm, no thanks, Oprah. We'll just redo the room ourselves..." YIKES.

"Last Comic Standing" finale tonight (I'm not going to watch "The OC" - I'm not going to watch "The OC"...). My favorite was Rob Cantrell, and now that he's gone I don't really care who wins (although... I voted for Tess). Rob was just different, and, next to all the other comics they've shown, unique. I'm sick of "look how UN-politically correct I can be" comedy. I'm sick of "my daughter/mom/dad/girlfriend did the craziest thing the other day" comedy. Rob was just bizarre - really odd observances and strange little jokes that very few people could come up with. That's why he deserved to win. All the other comics are interchangeable - but - as I said, I voted for Tess. She's kinda sassy, and I'd like to see an African American woman like her have her own TV show (PREDICTION: Whoopi's show will die quickly and painfully...).

Just a couple of weeks to go before school starts and I STILL haven't gone down to HeadStart to volunteer my services. Well, I did go to a center that was closed for the summer, and I was given the name of a woman to contact - a woman who hasn't returned my emails. So, I promise, TOMORROW I will go back down to the HeadStart offices with resume in hand and demand to be placed somewhere. Really, what the heck - I'm volunteering here. They don't have to pay me! I'm a sweet, funny guy that kids love! As I said, though, there are only a couple of weeks left in the summer - but, maybe I could continue to volunteer on Fridays (since, for some strange reason, student teaching will only be Monday-Thursday).

Brian downloaded this week's Sex & the City and we watched it over lunch. One of the best episodes yet. What a great show. And, Carrie's line about "paper covers rock" was BRILLIANT.

They keep saying on the local news today that it was a beautiful weekend. I wouldn't know. I spent Saturday and Sunday marathoning it through Donna Tartt's "The Little Friend". I really impressed myself - I sat on our back "porch" both days and tore through the last 2/3 of the book (it was due back to the library today... oh, and we really couldn't watch any TV because of the busted satellite receiver - although, the receiver in the bedroom works fine - but I would just feel gross lying in bed watching TV all day - it would be fine to watch all day sitting on the couch, but not lying in bed - ick...). All in all, I liked the book - although, I'm not exactly sure that anything really "happened" in the story, and I have no idea who "the little friend" is... YES, I read it closely!

So, I took the book back and got "Coraline". It's short, so I also got Michael Chabon's "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" (EVERYONE who is ANYONE on BART is reading it!!) - I think Brian's going to read that, though. Oh, and I reserved Gaiman's "Good Omens" (it's "in transit" back to the library) to read after "Coraline". Why "Good Omens"? Well, it had been rumoured for a long time that Terry Gilliam was going to direct the film version - so, I'm curious.

I recently unearthed a big, shallow box that had been hiding behind the couch (SINCE CHRISTMAS!) and set it by the recycling bin to be taken outside. It looks like it's going to be a keeper, though - the cats LOVE IT. It has become Sam's new bed (now that his old bed, the very nasty rust-coloured couch has been disposed of). He sleeps in this thing ALL DAY. Yesterday, I noticed that Sam left the box in order to get some food - the second he jumped out, Macon jumped in. When Sam was back from his snack he batted Macon across the face (to which Macon jumped out of the box), and then layed back down to rest. Bully.

So, the new satellite receiver arrived this morning. I've already pretty much re-programmed in all of our timers that were lost when the old receiver went to receiver heaven. What, you expect me to miss finding out who the Road Rulers kick out tonight? Please. I LOVE reading, and when I'm a teacher I'm going to encourage my little students to turn off the TVs in their living rooms and turn on the TVs in their minds (wow, that's pretty clever, eh?), but let's be realistic. The other night Brian said, "I miss NOT having TV." I said, "Fine, then don't watch." I'm not ashamed to admit that I couldn't do without a TV. Heck, I'm PROUD of my TV addiction. However, as a show of my will-power, I have vowed not to begin watching "The OC". Really, as much as I KNOW that I could get sucked into this thing, I'm not going to watch. Proud of me?

Nothing to really report today... My parents called - haven't really talked to them in a while. I always get the feeling that my father is kind of ticked off when we start to say goodbye. I can't explain it, but it just seems like he's profoundly disappointed, or he feels like I don't give a damn about them. I can't really tell which. Never been able to read him - probably never will.

My mom, however, is addicted to Amazing Race just like I am. She said, "I don't even know the names of those two young guys." I said, "I KNOW! They just kind of came out of nowhere!" We bonded. I think she's rooting for the clowns, though. That, I just can't endorse.

I also told them that their "little Catholic Church is not making me happy". Mom said she knew what I was talking about - Dad didn't say anything - I didn't pursue it any further. Maybe next month...