Yeah so my brother downloaded the Glee soundtrack and I can't get it out of my head. Ahhh! Fortunately, the only side effects are inexplicable peppiness and joy.
So you haven't posted! What's up in Takarazuka? How is the new job going? How is the not smoking going? I'm not quite there yet - in fact, I may be smoking a few more cigarettes a day now that I'm working full time because I can't NOT get out of this room for a few minutes every couple of hours or I'd lose my mind. Still, it's only a rare occasion when I smoke more than 5 or 6 a day, and I can live with that. I remember a few winters ago when we would have people over at the house everyday sparkling, I was up to 2 packs a day - and they were Marlboro Menthols. Ugh! Remember the days when we had nothing to do but smoke cigarettes, and only enough money to buy whatever 2-for-1 deals they had at the 7-11?
Bad times for my lungs.
Speaking of bad times, it's not surprising that you get that stabbing feeling in your ribcage still. Considering how much emotional trauma even I suffered during that time, I can't begin to imagine how you've processed it. I would never wish on anyone what you guys went through, and though I might have been wrong-headed sometimes with my interference, at the time I know we both did what we thought we needed to do. I know you must be scarred from what went down because sometimes I felt like watching what the relationship was doing to my best bro was the hardest thing I've ever done and I tried every way I could think of to protect you.
But not to be a Debbie Downer. I truly believe that time heals all wounds. How could it not? Memories fade and even though you might always remember feeling heartbreak, well, your heart will not always be broken - I suspect it has already put itself back together. Just keep focusing on being you and being happy and before long you will not even recognize the person you were then, and the hurt will will be an old memory, too.
On to lighter topics: I had a FABULOUS weekend. In fact, I intend to make every fucking weekend fabulous now that they're all I have. I know I've only been at this full time business for a week and a half but I've been watching this excellent British sitcom called "Spaced" with my brother, and it makes me miss being unemployed! (shhh - I don't mean it Universe!) It's basically a bizarre British stoner nerd version of FRIENDS. I just get pangs when they party late and wake up in the afternoon with nothing to do but go on wacky missions and hang out with their friends.
How sad is it that life doesn't work that way all the time?
Anyway, my weekend. It's gotten very chilly and autumnal here in Philly so on Saturday I took a long drive through Bucks County with my brother and his friend, Stubbs. Naturally, between each destination we were sure to introduce a new variable. We had breakfast at a diner, I bought a frickin' tie-dye hoody at Quakertown mart, we hiked through a 5-acre corn maze, scouted the Moravian Tile Works in Doylestown for fortifications in the event of a zombie infestation, and got fresh, cold apple cider and cider doughnuts at Styer's Orchard. And the drive was gorgeous - Alex's GPS capabilities on his iPhone let us take the most direct, and extremely scenic, routes.
Sunday was perhaps even more epic. Stephen had canceled on going on the drive with us Saturday to play a funeral, so he agreed to come down after church Sunday and we took the train into the city for Outfest. We brought with us a couple of white iced tea bottles filled to the brim with cheap riesling, of course. Lol. Oh and I ate a variable cookie on the train, too. So by the time we got to the Gayborhood we were already pretty ripped.
We met up with Kim, and continued drinking, wandering around the vendors, dancing to the music and yelling obscenities at the Christian protesters telling us we could achieve heterosexuality through Christ's love. Ha! What was really funny was when they turned the mic over to the gays and let us ask questions. I really wanted to be like "So, if I don't believe in Jesus, I'm going to hell, anyway, right? K, then I think I'll go right along eating pussy. Thx."
But naturally I just hollered at them something about Jesus eating pussy instead. Lol.
We eventually headed over to Tavern On Camac (try to control your shock) to meet up with Laura Spagnioli, better known as L-Spags, Stephen's former French prof. I had met L-Spags once before, this past summer when we were still living in S Philly. Stephen and I started a short-lived tradition called "cafe day" where we would walk to the Good Karma cafe on 22nd St and Pine and sit outside sipping coffee, smoking cigs, and harshly judging passersby.
On this one particular occasion, Stephen had planned to meet with L-Spags alone to discuss an essay for grad school, but when he got to the house in the morning I was still awake after staying up all night smoking and watching TV on DVD. Anyway, he insisted I go with him for coffee since I couldn't risk throwing off my whole sleep schedule by going to bed at 11am, and that's where I met L-Spags who I found to be bright, witty, and just a whole lot of fun. Plus it was good to hang out with an academic type again.
Wow, I think I've been typing this on and off for almost 2 hours. I really need to stop going off on background-info tangents so much, lol!
So back to Outfest: we enjoyed a round of Tequila Sunrises at TOC - which true to TOC form were made with Jose Cuervo and were about 80% tequila, 20% sunrise. DeLIcious. We decided to wander more, but didn't get very far because there was a huge impromptu dance party happening outside of Venture Inn where they had speakers and a DJ booth set up. We danced for a while and saw a vogue contest unfold...then we walked out to Spruce St and promptly got caught up in a street-wide line dance including scantily-clad go-go dancers and ANOTHER vogue contest. As we speak I have pictures of a man's naked ass on my phone because for some drunken reason I thought Stephen would want pics of the go-go dancers for prosperity LOL.
Eventually, it got late and we wrapped up the day with a big, alcohol-absorbing meal with Kim at Bucca di Beppo and caught a train home.
All in all, a pretty epic weekend. On the slate for this weekend, though, is mostly me locking myself in my room and working on grad school applications. As I continually lament, I am woefully behind in the process - but in reality, there's just not THAT much work to do, so I am going to make a push and hopefully by this time next week I will be feeling prepared and on top of things. (Of course I will take a few work breaks - to hold a Glee marathon with Ste on Friday night, and hang out with Matt and Deb in S Philly on Saturday night. Just don't expect any crazy stories.)
Then next week it's back to business, because we're going live with the Canadian cities - our clients won't be using the information yet, but it will be active in our system for all the supervisors and the big boss man to see, so I will have to be on top of my shit. Sigh.
3 hours later, I've officially run out of writing steam (I seem to have run out of decent material approximately .5 hours in, lol. But never let it be said that I never let it be said.) I look forward to another post from you. They totally improve my days, so get on that shit!
Brotherly Love,
-Bito
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
the long and winding road
K,
I'm so glad you posted even though I didn't! Truth be told, I didn't even think to check the blog until last night - I've had a pretty crazy hectic week. Last Sunday morning after my last overnight shift - around 4:30am - I crashed the crap out of my car hydroplaning on the Turnpike. The road was really wet and I was going too fast...I was driving in the right lane and I felt the wheel catch and suddenly I was spinning out. I spun around backwards, hit the concrete center barrier and slid backwards along it, sparks flying for about 1/4 mile.
I'm totally fine - although my neck did hurt for a few days from the whiplash - but there was that moment where I was seeing the sparks and headlights coming at me and hearing the grinding of my steel rims on the concrete when I was just thinking, Am I gonna die? I guess I could be about to die...
Needless to say I was happy not to have died. Still, it sucked sitting in my car in the rain for 2 hours waiting for the state police and a tow truck - which by the way I had to pay $150 for because PA doesn't let AAA help people on the toll road.
Anyway, the rest of the week was made crazy by a) dealing with the fallout from crashing the car and b) starting my Canadian Traffic Editor position at work. It's funny that we were kind of making our work transitions at the same time! Also, I'm so happy for you that your work days are getting back to normal. 10-11 hour days?!? Nuh-uh, child, you KNOW I would not be caught dead working that long! Actually, I'm pretty sure that's physically impossible for me anyway, LOL.
So then Monday sucked, because I woke up around 10:30 to a missed call from work because apparently my boss was expecting me in 9-5 (instead of 1-9 which is my normal shift) plus I had to wait for my dad to get home from his half day so I could use his car. And then of course I talked to the mechanic, who basically said that if I wanted to keep using my car without repairing the body damage (which would have cost way more than what the car was worth) that the back door and trunk would be useless.
Arggh. I'm so glad that week is over, I don't even want to talk about it! Suffice it to say, between driving to and from work in rush hour traffic, adjusting to a daytime schedule - as opposed to my usual afternoon/overnight schedule - and planning to buy a new car, I was pretty stressed.
On the plus side, this is my new car!!
Pretty sweet, right? She's so preeeetty. I still haven't decided what to name her. Also on the plus side, since my full-time job came with an unexpected PAY RAISE (from $13/hr to $16.83/hr) I will actually be able to afford the payments without killing myself, LOL.
That's pretty much how I spent the last week - unless you count complaining about my new job. One of the Canadian cities we'll be covering is Montreal. Even though during the interview my boss informed me that we would be able to get all of the information for Montreal in English (in spite of the fact that the primary language is French), it turns out that was just a lie, LOL. I've spent most of my prep time here trying to figure out ways to prepare English-speaking editors to speak to police dispatchers over the phone in French (HA!) and read construction reports that are written all in French.
For the speaking part, I think it may be an insurmountable task since we'll have to be able to UNDERSTAND what the dispatchers are saying, not just read our questions from a script...but in the meantime it LOOKS like I'm doing a lot of work preparing the language resources, so maybe I'll get another raise next performance review! Haha.
As you can see, not much personal life news. The diet and exercise kind of got abandoned this week, due to neck aching, business and an abundance of house guests. First my cousins last weekend, a cast party for my Mom and Alex's play yesterday, and now there are repairmen taking over my room all week to repair water damage from an AC issue we had earlier in the summer. Next weekend I'm going to be THRILLED to have no more strangers running around my house!
Hung out with Matt and Deb (a couple of my bro's friends) a few times. They're cool people, funny, smart, political and LOVE chilling out with mota as often as possible, LOL. Also Deb is one hell of a shoplifter. Me and Ste drove up with them Friday night to see the play, and hung out afterward getting crunk and talking shit.
My favorite pastimes! Haha.
In other entertainment news, I am OBSESSED with "Glee" this new musical sit com that just started a few weeks ago. I might never have watched it, but Tom and Lorenzo, these two gay Project Runway/fashion bloggers I heart, reviewed it here and I'm so glad they did. I am such a fag! I love the biting dialogue, the absolutely kick-ass musical numbers (seriously) and also, not gonna lie, I'm kind of in love with Lea Michele (the super-Jewish female lead; duh.) LOL. So I know you're not a big TV watcher, but if you're interested (knowing you, interested to check out the hot girl! :P) you can watch the first five episodes on Hulu. Oh, I also watched the movie "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" and it basically made my life.
Have I bored you long enough yet? LOL. I promise to post more often now that hell week is over (fingers crossed) and I do want to talk more about your last posts, but this one is starting to get super-long and rambly, so I will post again soon.
Gah! I miss you. We need to have one of our hours-long philosophical discussions/story times ASAP. Until then,
-Don Bito
I'm so glad you posted even though I didn't! Truth be told, I didn't even think to check the blog until last night - I've had a pretty crazy hectic week. Last Sunday morning after my last overnight shift - around 4:30am - I crashed the crap out of my car hydroplaning on the Turnpike. The road was really wet and I was going too fast...I was driving in the right lane and I felt the wheel catch and suddenly I was spinning out. I spun around backwards, hit the concrete center barrier and slid backwards along it, sparks flying for about 1/4 mile.
I'm totally fine - although my neck did hurt for a few days from the whiplash - but there was that moment where I was seeing the sparks and headlights coming at me and hearing the grinding of my steel rims on the concrete when I was just thinking, Am I gonna die? I guess I could be about to die...
Needless to say I was happy not to have died. Still, it sucked sitting in my car in the rain for 2 hours waiting for the state police and a tow truck - which by the way I had to pay $150 for because PA doesn't let AAA help people on the toll road.
Anyway, the rest of the week was made crazy by a) dealing with the fallout from crashing the car and b) starting my Canadian Traffic Editor position at work. It's funny that we were kind of making our work transitions at the same time! Also, I'm so happy for you that your work days are getting back to normal. 10-11 hour days?!? Nuh-uh, child, you KNOW I would not be caught dead working that long! Actually, I'm pretty sure that's physically impossible for me anyway, LOL.
So then Monday sucked, because I woke up around 10:30 to a missed call from work because apparently my boss was expecting me in 9-5 (instead of 1-9 which is my normal shift) plus I had to wait for my dad to get home from his half day so I could use his car. And then of course I talked to the mechanic, who basically said that if I wanted to keep using my car without repairing the body damage (which would have cost way more than what the car was worth) that the back door and trunk would be useless.
Arggh. I'm so glad that week is over, I don't even want to talk about it! Suffice it to say, between driving to and from work in rush hour traffic, adjusting to a daytime schedule - as opposed to my usual afternoon/overnight schedule - and planning to buy a new car, I was pretty stressed.
On the plus side, this is my new car!!
Pretty sweet, right? She's so preeeetty. I still haven't decided what to name her. Also on the plus side, since my full-time job came with an unexpected PAY RAISE (from $13/hr to $16.83/hr) I will actually be able to afford the payments without killing myself, LOL.
That's pretty much how I spent the last week - unless you count complaining about my new job. One of the Canadian cities we'll be covering is Montreal. Even though during the interview my boss informed me that we would be able to get all of the information for Montreal in English (in spite of the fact that the primary language is French), it turns out that was just a lie, LOL. I've spent most of my prep time here trying to figure out ways to prepare English-speaking editors to speak to police dispatchers over the phone in French (HA!) and read construction reports that are written all in French.
For the speaking part, I think it may be an insurmountable task since we'll have to be able to UNDERSTAND what the dispatchers are saying, not just read our questions from a script...but in the meantime it LOOKS like I'm doing a lot of work preparing the language resources, so maybe I'll get another raise next performance review! Haha.
As you can see, not much personal life news. The diet and exercise kind of got abandoned this week, due to neck aching, business and an abundance of house guests. First my cousins last weekend, a cast party for my Mom and Alex's play yesterday, and now there are repairmen taking over my room all week to repair water damage from an AC issue we had earlier in the summer. Next weekend I'm going to be THRILLED to have no more strangers running around my house!
Hung out with Matt and Deb (a couple of my bro's friends) a few times. They're cool people, funny, smart, political and LOVE chilling out with mota as often as possible, LOL. Also Deb is one hell of a shoplifter. Me and Ste drove up with them Friday night to see the play, and hung out afterward getting crunk and talking shit.
My favorite pastimes! Haha.
In other entertainment news, I am OBSESSED with "Glee" this new musical sit com that just started a few weeks ago. I might never have watched it, but Tom and Lorenzo, these two gay Project Runway/fashion bloggers I heart, reviewed it here and I'm so glad they did. I am such a fag! I love the biting dialogue, the absolutely kick-ass musical numbers (seriously) and also, not gonna lie, I'm kind of in love with Lea Michele (the super-Jewish female lead; duh.) LOL. So I know you're not a big TV watcher, but if you're interested (knowing you, interested to check out the hot girl! :P) you can watch the first five episodes on Hulu. Oh, I also watched the movie "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" and it basically made my life.
Have I bored you long enough yet? LOL. I promise to post more often now that hell week is over (fingers crossed) and I do want to talk more about your last posts, but this one is starting to get super-long and rambly, so I will post again soon.
Gah! I miss you. We need to have one of our hours-long philosophical discussions/story times ASAP. Until then,
-Don Bito
And I keep on going...
Hey Bro, so it's been too long... you should post something! What's going on in Phila?
Today I officially moved over to Claims in the insurance co. Doing both claims and client services for a month was a proper headache. Oh and training a new person. Average working day was 10 - 11 hours, then box for hour and a half, then commute hour and a half back home. So today, on my first day as a claims person, I left right at 6pm coz I felt like I had finished my days' job. And went straight to the gym.
Did I tell you I quit cigs three weeks ago, coz it just did't fit with tryna eat healthy and train to build fitness lol. I couldn't throw punches for a round without having to catch my breath and I really wanna see myself go the whole three min without stopping at all. hahaha I must sound silly.
Today one of the trainers offered to do a "play" spar with me, I don't know what you call in English but it's where the trainer just play defense and I get to punch all I want lol. Not easy as it sounds because they are quick, and you get frustrated throwing empty punches lol. But, the guy today, he wasn't just playing defense, he threw punches too and I was like oh shit haha. At first I could't get him and he kept saying like I can punch his face lol. Then I got a clean hit in his rib, then the side of his face and I think I pissed him off lol. He started to throw punches non-stop lol! He wasn't serious so it was fun, but it's the craziest sport man. I caught several taps on my forehead and chin... I would have been fucked if we were serious. The pros are always bleeding when they spar, some intense shit.
After that I had to just punch the bag with full power till it felt like my arms were gna come off coz I had so much energy left. It felt great, I highly recommend you trying man.
I really feel great these days! Last friday, I went out with my colleague's husband who just had a baby, and his sister from Chicago. I told you I haven't been drinking so much lately, but that night would've out done a night out in Philly. Jager, and unstoppable Imo-jyochu (Japanese liguor made from sweet potato), and downing beer like water, singing karaoke, don't remember getting home, but still went to work the next day to teach swimming to kids! ZOMG! Without a hangover too!! I know my friend came to pick me up at karaoke and drove me home, but I don't remember gettin off the car. I remember taking off my clothes to sleep, and then waking myself up to get ready for school. I was so sleepy, and then later figured that my friend came to get me around 3am from my text msg so I only had couple hours sleep lol! First lesson in the morning, I felt disoriented but then I was like so energetic with the kids it was great! I of course skipped the gym, went straight home, and fell face first on my pillow.
Anyways, I wana know what's up with you bro. Brain is going to shut down in 15 mins.
Peace and Love
K
Today I officially moved over to Claims in the insurance co. Doing both claims and client services for a month was a proper headache. Oh and training a new person. Average working day was 10 - 11 hours, then box for hour and a half, then commute hour and a half back home. So today, on my first day as a claims person, I left right at 6pm coz I felt like I had finished my days' job. And went straight to the gym.
Did I tell you I quit cigs three weeks ago, coz it just did't fit with tryna eat healthy and train to build fitness lol. I couldn't throw punches for a round without having to catch my breath and I really wanna see myself go the whole three min without stopping at all. hahaha I must sound silly.
Today one of the trainers offered to do a "play" spar with me, I don't know what you call in English but it's where the trainer just play defense and I get to punch all I want lol. Not easy as it sounds because they are quick, and you get frustrated throwing empty punches lol. But, the guy today, he wasn't just playing defense, he threw punches too and I was like oh shit haha. At first I could't get him and he kept saying like I can punch his face lol. Then I got a clean hit in his rib, then the side of his face and I think I pissed him off lol. He started to throw punches non-stop lol! He wasn't serious so it was fun, but it's the craziest sport man. I caught several taps on my forehead and chin... I would have been fucked if we were serious. The pros are always bleeding when they spar, some intense shit.
After that I had to just punch the bag with full power till it felt like my arms were gna come off coz I had so much energy left. It felt great, I highly recommend you trying man.
I really feel great these days! Last friday, I went out with my colleague's husband who just had a baby, and his sister from Chicago. I told you I haven't been drinking so much lately, but that night would've out done a night out in Philly. Jager, and unstoppable Imo-jyochu (Japanese liguor made from sweet potato), and downing beer like water, singing karaoke, don't remember getting home, but still went to work the next day to teach swimming to kids! ZOMG! Without a hangover too!! I know my friend came to pick me up at karaoke and drove me home, but I don't remember gettin off the car. I remember taking off my clothes to sleep, and then waking myself up to get ready for school. I was so sleepy, and then later figured that my friend came to get me around 3am from my text msg so I only had couple hours sleep lol! First lesson in the morning, I felt disoriented but then I was like so energetic with the kids it was great! I of course skipped the gym, went straight home, and fell face first on my pillow.
Anyways, I wana know what's up with you bro. Brain is going to shut down in 15 mins.
Peace and Love
K
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