I feel poopy. I think I ate some bad sushi today. It was either that or the double-cream brie i ate the night before. Some days I feel my stomach works against me.

Blech.

I watched the Savages last night. Not bad. They used the dad to make the son/daughter relationship intense while he just sat around and acted bewildered. It was fairly depressing.

I'm also reading the Watchmen. It's a very well put together comic. I can see how it is easily adaptable to movie format. Plus, it won an Hugo Award. Good stuff.

Musix

I am looking forward to this year as being a very creative one for me. I've been dabbling in music, writing, and other artistic things to keep my brain juices boiling. I hope by years end, some of them have laid the foundation for either some serious projects for me later in life. I feel a bit behind on a lot of them having put a lot of my hobbies on hold as I searched for myself in relationships. Now that I'm single and have ample free time, it is really refreshing to immerse myself in several hobbies.

I started a new guitar lesson with a different teacher today. It was out of his home studio in the basement of his house. I met the guy while bartending; he has the traditional aging rocker look with long hair, eyes and complexion that have seen far too many parties and not enough sun. He is super nice and also really great at guitar (mainly influenced by all the classic rock guitarists, but he is currently into Hendrix and mainly blues styles). He gave me some fingerwork to do for the next month before our next lesson. On this same subject, I accidentally spaced out my other guitar teacher giving me a lesson today, she was at my house while I was out. Secretly I just want her to disappear, but I am going to have to tell her that I need to put our lessons on hold. I just find that this current teacher works better for me right now.

Speaking of music, my friend's dad really wants me to come by this week (earlier than his March 1st schedule) and start writing music/singing. He eventually wants to perform on live mic night at the D-Note (Mondays). Heck. I'm nervous though. I don't feel like I know what I'm doing yet. Sure I can read lyrics off a screen and sing while looking at a TV, but what if I don't have any of that stuff? I guess I better prepare quickly!

(Stuff watched this week: Flight of the Conchords Season One, Manhatten)

Hmm, hmm.

I met a bartender at Carrabas the other day. I went there to have some food and ended up running into some of my bar regulars. They pointed out that this new girl was a great new addition to the scenery at the bar. This point was coming from a man in his late sixties who was sitting next to his wife and her 94 year-old mother. I couldn't help but notice how amazingly proportioned this girl was. She was quiet, but that was absolutely fine, because I was overwhelmed by how amazing her butt looked in Docker's. Now, I'll have to explain this just a bit, when I say 'amazing,' I mean her butt was on the border of being too large for most people to admire, but coupled with the fact that she had a thin waist and upper-half, she fit the bill. All the while I couldn't help but think to myself, "How much should I leave as a tip? I've been starring at a fine piece of art all day, how much does the art museum charge for admission, that should be adequate?"

Oh man. I hear she is a bit strange though. When people say that, I am even more intrigued. I need a strange girl with an amazing butt in my life, even if it's just for a couple nights of fun or a friendship.

On Sunday I really started utilizing my 'streaming' Netflix account on my Xbox. For those unfamiliar, I now have the ability to add movies to my Instant Queue on Netflix. Once a movie or show is on there I can turn on my xbox and access the content immediately, error/lag free. How sweet is that? I've been trying to catch up on a lot of movies I put off last year.

Since Sunday afternoon I've watched: Heavy Metal 1 & 2, THX 1138, The Wind that Shakes the Barely, This is England, and Persepolis. I recommend all of these movies for different reasons. I suppose the first two I'd have to be in the right mood to watch again, but I enjoy those cult animation classics. For some reason I've really been on an international movie kick lately though. I think it's probably me just being a bit travel-sick being back from Europe for so long. I'd really like to take another trip back there

Anyway, all for now.

For your face

It has been said several times. I am more high-strung lately.

I knocked over a large flower vase at work today. It was being balanced on the top of a keg by a busser who was too lazy to put it where it goes before he left. I happened to knock it off balance as I was finishing the last bit of my evening side work (which takes about an hour between two people). I kept quiet. It wasn't really the fact that a busser was being lazy, or that I happened to stumble into his laziness-trap, it was sort of everything all at once about work that hit me in the face. Specifically, when the schedule changes, I get cranky. I happened to notice it changed as I was gearing up to leave for the night.

It's all little shit, I realized, after I got home. Change is good, usually. It's the changes at work in my schedule that make it refreshing and interesting. I think it's human nature to fear change as an immediate reaction. Hell, I've had to fear it several times. I also think it's my biggest flaw. I get so damn comfortable with everything that the thought of change is so frightening I can't end relationships, friendships, or roommate-ships. I can't assemble musicians. I can't get the hell out of this city and experience something new--unless someone comes with me. I fear change and I fear tackling it alone.

This blog entry was going to be in a different tone, but another little thing set me off just before I started typing it. My drunken roommates came stumbling in the door to their room. Apparently Kit was carrying Christine to her bed and she rolled off of it, twice. It's something like 180 lbs. + of woman crashing onto the floor off of a bed raised up about four feet. It's loud. It's annoying. One of my biggest pet peeves is drunken shenanigans when I'm sober. Loud drunken shenanigans. What the fuck?

One day after the next they stumble through that doorway a human receptacle of Jagermeister and Bud Light. Their car was parked in the lot, at least they didn't drive tonight. Someone must've dropped them off; another person in this twisted mess of enabling them to be the drunken disaster they are. I can see it now though. They need each other. Christine becomes a miserable, quiet mess when Kit is gone for even a day. When Kit left for a week to visit his brother in California with his mother, Christine seemed different. It's like her other half was leaving her - simply put. Kit will entertain Christine's endless questions, her need for constant attention, her nosiness into all affairs which never pertain to her, and he will especially endorse her drinking, because she pays for both of their tabs. It's sort of the culmination of all this that pounds into my brain as Christine slams into the floor. I don't know which emotion I feel more strongly at this juncture: irritation or pity.

On a separate subject, I feel like more regulars are coming in and telling me of how horrible the economy is. People are losing their jobs all over the state, but more so in the bigger areas on the coasts. I am just not sensing it is troubling the area we are in as much. I want to say I am confident that this next year will hold much change, but I also understand that things are probably going to get worse before they will get better. Somehow, as I stand behind a giant marble bar in Pappadeaux, I feel like I am in a stasis bubble. The money never seems to get any better or worse unless it's a holiday week. People who come in keep regurgitating what the media is broadcasting everywhere: "We are headed for the next Great Depression." Isn't it more worthwhile to spend time being optimistic? I think we were all just waiting for a Pepsi commercial to remind us what the media tends to make us forget.

Something to make you more optimistic: check out Hulu.com and watch It's Always Sunny (Season 3 is outstanding).