Note on 9/14/05: My apologies – I don’t know if it was archive.org or just bad writing the first time around but this entry is rather messed up. There is some good info in it so I’m leaving it in but forgive the weird flow.
I just figured out why I kept hearing fire engines off and on throughout the day. Until now I had just chalked it up to my being not too far from New York City, and more than once I turned on CNN to see if something horrible had happened only to find the same old news. So it was with surprise and relief to see a large hook and ladder truck noisily blasting up the street with Santa Claus “Ho-Ho-Ho”ing and waving from the turret (is that what they call the the place where the ladder sits and turns around from?). It was a little surreal to say the least but then it’s been a rather odd trip.
Work is going well as I expected though having access to good, freshly-brewed coffee has led to the complete demise of my avoidance of caffeine. I made it for a month without it but the thought of driving half way across the country without the help of caffeine was daunting. And so, a week or so before I left I started again. And now, with a workplace equipped with a machine that freshly brews (one cup at a time) my choice of four different “Green Mountain Coffee Roaster” blends I am back to four or so cups a day and just as addicted as ever. It was particularly evident yesterday when I slept in until 9:30 am. Then lazed about the room until 11:00 when I felt too exhausted to move (despite having already had 11 hours of sleep already) and went back to sleep until 2:00. After that I woke up with a horrible headache (caffeine withdrawal, no doubt – I hadn’t had any all day after all). It took me nearly an hour before I could get myself motivated to go find some food.
I learned now that I’m not very good at being alone. Perhaps those of you who know me in real life already know that and if so why didn’t you tell me? I have trouble coming up with new and interesting things to do – particularly without spending much money. Sure I can go to eat (the folks at Planet Pizza can probably tell you about me. I can also go on long road trips as that is something I learned early on is a good way to be by myself. With a good bunch of CDs or just some decent radio I can spend an entire day in the car without too much difficulty. But otherwise I’m sort of at a loss. Nothing really sounds fun. So in the meantime I pass my time reading (nothing wrong with that I suppose), watching bad movies (I drew the line today at “Breakin’” though.) and playing games with my Genesis or M.A.M.E. emulator. What occurs to me as something to do, of course, is to go visiting but everyone I know is a day’s drive away.
I did go to see a movie this past week, though. Amelie was a fantastic film by the same director as “Delicatessen” which I have not seen but have had recommended to me several times. It is delightfully quirky, just a bit surreal (in a good way) and the type of move I spent the entire time cursing a full bladder in. Why? Becuase it felt as if every moment of the movie was important. Like I might miss something significant if I just went to the bathroom for a couple of minutes. It’s a good thing it was that good as the prices here are insane to see a movie. At home it costs $4.50 to see a movie and I think for popcorn and a drink it comes to about $3-4. Here, albeit in Scarsdale – one of the more expensive places to live in this part of the country – it cost $9 to get in and for a medium popcorn and medium drink it was $6.50. Had this movie been a flop I would’ve felt really horrible about having wasted over $15. Let me remind those of you who
Last weekend, though, I did make it on a roadtrip. I drove to Vermont for my first trip back since the mid 90’s (I’m thinking 1996 or 1997 at the latest). I was really glad I did it, though it wasn’t nearly what I expected it would be from the get-go. It took me about 4 hours to get there and so I was all checked in by 1:00 pm. I called around to see if anyone I knew was around and found that not only were the two people I was going to see not home, others I tried to track down on the spur of the moment were not either. (There goes the fire engine again – Santa’s going to be hoarse after all this yelling – I can actually hear him over the sirens). It was good to see my brother, though. We managed to get together for a couple hours the evening I got there and then spent the next morning together before he had to do some errands and I had to head home. What I can say about the whole trip is that Vermont wasn’t the utopia I had made it up to be. I know, Sage, that’s what you’ve been trying to tell me for years.
People in this part of the country really know how to eat. The worst meals I’ve eaten out here were comparable to the best meals I’ve had out in the midwest. And don’t get me started on pizza. I think that ordering a pizza place anywhere else in the country gets you a passible piece of dough with sauce and cheese on it but only in the New York area can they truly make what I would call a fantastic pizza. And the subs, which everyone here insists upon calling “Wedges” for some strange reason, are fantastic. Guido’s Italian Deli in Yonkers has singlehandedly made me also give up being a vegetarian for at least the time I’m here. I don’t know where they get their bread but the likes of it cannot be bought anywhere west of Pennsylvania as far as I know – and certainly not in our part of the country. Why does everyone in the midwest insist upon bread and even bagels with the consistency of dinner rolls. Okay – enough about food before Sage doesn’t put this up.
Being away from Paul has been really hard, though. I thought it would get easier over time as it did when I was in Kalamazoo but it hasn’t – probably because I have at least a couple more weeks ahead of me before I can see him instead of a total of ten days before I am to be finished. It’s particularly difficult because the company where I’m working right now is much smaller than the one in Michigan and so parents are bringing in their babies and children daily and every time I see one it reminds me of Paul. And of course I hear about all the fun he’s having with everyone back home and two things happen. The first is obvious – I wish I were there having fun with him. The second isn’t quite as obvious, though, I don’t think. And that is that I worry that he’s having more fun now that I’m gone. Not that he likes his granny, Sage and one of our friends better than me, but more like they’re better at (or more motivated at) finding fun things to do with him. It’s probably not true, I’m sure
On the way over to here I stopped in Bethlehem. That was such a trip to say the least. I stopped briefly at The Morning Call – the last “real” job I had to show up for daily and saw several people. It was amazing to see how much the place had changed. I don’t think the people there realize it as it’s happened over time but it is quite a trip to say the least. Unfortunately I didn’t get there until about 4:45 on a Friday afternoon so I didn’t see most of the people I’d hoped to see.
After that I went over to our old neighborhood and though normally a shy person, I knocked on our old neighbors’ door. I had such a good time – I think in the time I lived in that neighborhood we never chatted for more than five minutes but I think this time we talked for easily four hours. I regret not having spent more time with them when we lived there. The neighborhood hadn’t changed much, except for getting more busy and congested with traffic. I can’t imagine raising Paul there with all those people and cars.
I’m going to get to try it for a little bit, though, as Kite and Paul are leaving for here not this weekend but the following one. I’ll pick them up in Bethlehem (we all agreed that’d be the best place to land for them) and then we’ll stay there a day or two before heading up here. It should be interesting – I wonder what Paul will think about this area. It’s much bigger and way more congested than
it was in Michigan. I’m glad that there’s good public transportation here, though as Kite has no license. So anyway, next weekend I am going to pick up a car seat for the rental car since they’re not bring one with them and we want an additional one for the van at home anyway.
It’s strange to be back (somewhat) in this lifestyle. Very weird to be living in one very simple way, dining out very infrequently, driving old(ish) cars that can’t always leave town. And then after a couple phonecalls being able to put on a whole new identity. So now I’m working every day, commuting to work in a ‘01 Ford Escape SUV and dining out for nearly every meal. Okay, it may be weird, but it’s also a nice change every once in a while. I’d never want this life on a day to day basis. It just doesn’t fit with who I am. But it is fun to play dress-up, anyway.
Oh – and here’s my pathetic true confession for the day. On my way to lunch, albeit one of the worst – at a place generically named “Chinese Buffet” apparently (that was the only sign they had) I drove by a Pier One store. I almost went in just so that I could look for the hammocks they sell there that are made at East Wind. I think that’s part of my whole disorientation here, actually, is the lack of anything familiar. I haven’t a familiar routine, no familiar people around me. Only my work is familiar – and perhaps a few familiar dishes at restaurants. But other than that it’s all alien to me – and even the familiar places have changed tremendously since I last saw them.
Next weekend I’m off to see a friend of mine whom I’ve kept in contact (albeit off and on at times) longer than anyone else in my life. I met her in Kindergarten when she was my next door neighbor. While we went down some really different paths it’s amazing to see just how similar many of the details of our lives and values have turned out to be. I’m excited to meet her husband and children and to see her family. It won’t be so bad visiting that area, though. After all, I know it’s changed a great deal since I lived there in 1975 but my memory of the area there is pretty much gone so it won’t be quite so shocking. And unlike my trip to Vermont, I won’t be on some level expecting to hear “K.C. and the Sunshine Band” on the radio. That can only be a good thing. And yes, Tina, I’ll be getting in touch soon (if you haven’t heard from me already) as I’ll be right in your neighborhood.
I haven’t figured out what I’ll be doing, if anything, for Christmas. After all, if I were at home I probably wouldn’t be doing anything special though traditionally in past years that’s when I have gone into a mild depression about my lack of a decent relationship with my extended family. I’ll probably just wind up going out for Chinese food for lunch, reading a bunch punctuated with a few video games and bad television movies.
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