A whole week down

Ok, so it seems obvious that when not on the road I'm not going to be updating this thing all that much. But screw that, I really want to keep this thing rolling, it's just that now that I've returned to my "normal" setting, I haven't had as much to talk about.
Over the weekend I went up to Mertztown, had to visit the sister and also attend my class reunion. Now, normally I ouldn't go to the freakin' thing, but my sister and some good friends organized the thing, so I was OBLIGATED to attend. And it was good, seeing nd hanging out with all the people that I would talk to on a regular basis? The people I haven't seen in years? fuck them. Seriously, the "elite" of my class has become a bunch of hippies. so cool, man.
I outgrew my stoner phase a long time ago. But then, we already discussed this.
I did impress people with my (lack of) amazing Badmitton skills. it's a stupid sport anyway!!

The rest of the week has been devoted to work work work. yippee. I am excited as i have a large pile of comics to get caught up with.
All I want to do is just lay around and read, but I usually don't get to it until late at night and three panels into my second comic, my eyes grow heavy. I'm hoping that this weekend I'll get to do nothing but read and watch TV. I have such lofty goals.
Of course, there is a very good chance that I might be on a plane to the west coast as well. I'll probably find out tonight or tomorrow. That's the crazy part, in 48-72 hours I could be headed to the other side of the continent. and people around here can't understand why I freak out about not knowing what's going on.

I actually was going to write about some other random stuff, but I need to get back to work. Maybe tonight, but I'm not holding my breath.

An end, finally.

Alright, so it's 9PM in Denver and I my west coast business trip is officially coming to a close. Today I had to give a two hour presentation to about 20 people. It went pretty smoothly, and I handled my usual nervousness rather well. Afterwards, I retreated to my hotel room, changed out of the "good clothes" and went down to eat a bit, then back to the room.

All I've been doing for te past 3 hours is lying in bed, listening to music, and reading. It has been 3 of the best hours of the past few weeks. Before typing this entry I stared out the window at all the lights surrounding the hotel (it's in the middle of a tech center). I had a feeling that is equal to the feeling conveyed by the movie "Lost In Translation" At this point, being in the middle of Denver or being in the middle of Tokyo really isn't any different at all.

I believe that in the passed I have mistaking this feeling - this melancholly - as some sort of depression. But tonight it's no such thing. It is welcoming and I love that my mind is dull and wrapped in a mellow state of unthinking. Usually I have a thousand thoughts competing to be thought, but as I right this, the words are being thought as they are being typed. I think the fact that I am listening to music through headphones helps as well.

I'm very excited to be back east, to see my family, to drive my shiny new(ish) Jeep, to pet my cats, to see the girlfriend; however I think I'll m iss this moment a bit. No one is bothering me, and no one is around. While in general I prefer crashing on someone's couch over hotel rooms, they can do the trick from time to time. In the liner note for Moby's last album he does a much better job describing the appeal of hotel rooms.

I finished two books today, and feel like I've really accomplished something. The books: "The-Know-It-All" and "Neverwhere" were both worth reading, though I suppose I would suggest Neverwhere first. I know Neil Gaiman from comics, but he was a successful author before that, as was shown by this book. Tomorrow I'll have to grab a book before bording the plane, maybe they'll have his book "American Gods" which is supposed to be better. Really, all these books are just me biding time until November 8th when George R.R. Martin's next book is out. Then I'll be lugging that freaking thing around for a while (it's over 1000 pages). Still, I'm sure it will be worth the backache.

I think I'm going to go watchh some episodes of Lost and anime before getting to bed, gotta be up at 5:30 to catch the shuttle to the airport.

High Speed Service My Arse...

Ok, so now I'm in Denver, on the day after my birthday. And what a birthday it was. Every freakin' thing that could go wrong, did. I had to go to different properties so that I could update their firmware (which was what I was trying to accomplish the day before). Unfortunatly, half-way through the day, I got a call that one of the upgrades I had performed had actually broke the machine. I left out a 9 while typing up the programming. ARGH!So, I had to rush over to the property, on the other side of San diego, and during my hurry screwed the machine up even more. After two long weeks, I kind of lost it. A very impressive temper tantrum. The sales rep was actually a bit frightened, and insisted that I drink a beer on the way home. So, while she's driving up the 405N I'm kicking back a giant keg can of Heineken.

it did the trick.

By the time we were back in Orange County, I was much more mellow and a bit buzzed. I proceeded to down a few bottles of "Skullsplitter" (oh, so good), and cruised through the rest of the night. Dinner with my boss wasn't even that bad, he must have been making a concious effort not to talk business.
I then had the sales rep's husband take me to the Yard House, I wanted a shot of Jameson and a Guiness (breakfast of champions) Unfortunatly, California doesn't believe in Jameson, as it wasn't to be found anywhere. I made do with another Irish Whisket, bujt feel I'll need to make up for it this weekend.

Over all? shit birthday. But the people around me tried to make it well, and for that I am grateful.

I'm also grateful that my favorite thing about France - the Gourbierres - have given me such wonderful birthday wishes.


Ok, I'm older, I'm over it. Tomorrow I have to give a two hour presentation on our products - which I am INSANLY underprepared for - and then just chill out until I fly home Friday morning. why just chill, why not go exploring? Oh, because of right now my license is expired.

go go procrastination!

I'm outtie now, need sleepy. About to finish "the know-it-all" and am half way through Neverwhere by Neil GAIMAN. Listening to a lot, but some gems are new stellastarr*, Sufjan Stevens, Audioslave (just for three songs), and Feist.

night all.

Human After All

So, today's my birthday. Happy freakin' birthday.

I'm a little bitter as I am spending it on the other side of the country, away from my family and friends - but most importantly - away from my TWIN sister. This may be the first birthday we've been apart in 28 years. I mean, come on now, we shared a fucking womb.

I've been very open that being a twin is the greatest experience of my life, and the fact that we're so close is truly great. I mean, I was able to grow up with my best friend, sharing all our intimate secrets, and being holy terrors by constantly ganging up on my parents.

Quick one of my favorite twin stories. One day in high school, on the drive there, my sister and I decided to skip out on school, head to the mall. Now, normally, this is no big deal, however my father worked at the local Vo-Tech, and so got our schools bulletin which listed all the absent students. Of course he noticed both of his childrens names' on the bulletin. So, after school, arriving home, my dad confronted us on it. I was like a deer in headlights - This wasn't my first OR last absent day - but my sister smiled, and simply said "Didn't go. Twin bonding day." My dad was speechless, then turned away shaking his head, muttering "twin bonding day."

She can be an evil genius sometimes, don't let the bubblyness and cuteness fool you.

SO, last night I notice that I'm an east coast boy, and so there for at 9:01PM on the west coast it was my official birthday. And, it being 12:01AM on the east coast, I'd call my sister, disturbing her precious sleep, and wish her a very loud, very obnoxiuos "HAAAAAPPPPYYYY BIIIRRRTTTHHHDAAAAAAYYY!!!!"

Nothing but net. swoosh.

Then, before we hit the road for San Diego (I'm leaving in like 5 minutes), there's a knock at the door (I'm sleeping on the regional salewoman's couch). I open the door, expecting a package from the office, instead getting a package from my sister. She overnighted me a birthday card and present.

I crumble, tears rolling down my face, blubbering like a little school boy.

A three point shot at the buzzer. Team me goes down in defeat.


Anyway, happy birthday to my best friend forever: My Twin Sister Andrea.


and me too, godammit.

*yawn*

Well, ok, as I said the post before, in LA now. Just spent a week in Las Vegas. I played some roulette, which went very well, then some craps, which went very well, then some more roulette, which just went so-so.
Overall it was a pretty pleasent trip. A fellow worker and I got to hit the town together (usually I'm flying stag). We eventually ended up at Harrah's, where we enjoyed a game called Triple Threat, or something like that. basically, the first card is a game of war against the dealer, then it's a game of blackjack, then a game of poker. We just sat down, started chatting with the old guys at the table (big UPs to Wally and Bob), and - being well trashed - proceeded to have a blast. After a while, a couple (Damien and Shandra) sat down and played. Damien had bought is wife some very nice fake boobs, and Shandra proceeded to show those puppies off. We sat at the table for at least an hour and half, and soon had a crowd around us. Not so much a crowd of people saying "Look how much they're winning", but a more a crowd of people saying, "Look how drunk they are". We had a blast and won a nice clip to boot.


So, now it's a Sunday morning and I have absolutely NOTHING to do today. It's actually a damn good feeling. The only real downside is that I don't have a hotel for tonight, so I need to check out of the hotel I am currently in. This means it's not really gonna be easy for me to lay around and watch the foosball - which is exactly what i want to do. The sales rep for the west coast - Lisa - lets me crash at her house all the time, and I know I could go sit around her house, but I figure her and her husband may want to be left alone. Still, Rob likes football and will probably sit around and watch it so maybe I'll head that way.

In the mean time, I can cruise the record shops. While not as good as the stores up in northern Cali, they do have Virgin Megastores down in Newport beach.
That's actually one way I cope with all thge traveling I do. I make sure to find my way to a local CD store and just go through all the music. It calms me, it is my meditation. yes, it is kind os sickening.

Oh well, hopefully I can also find a place to chill and watch some episodes of Lost. I've heard it's a fantastic show, so I went out and bought the box set. Now I am trying to get through the first season (only 20 episodes to go) before the seson premier on Wednesday... I'll never make it. It's funny, I feel like I don't watch enough TV, so I'm looking for a show to invest time in - besides Battlestar Galactica. Why do I want to watch more TV? I have no idea. Maybe I should just go ahead and purchase a mumu now. That way, when I am truly a fat bastard, I won't have to leave the house to get an outfit.

I really need to start exercising again.


Ok, this post was rather stupid, but I'm not quite awake yet. I'll holla back later.

"holla back" - boy do I suck.

Back from Vegas

Alright, made the trip back to California, but LA area this time. I'll hit the high points in a later post, as I needs me some sleep. Quick summary though: I broke even.

What a day

Yesterday was one long MFing day. I had to work a show, so up around 7AM, work the show (smooze the people who just want to bitch that our products cost too much), then tear down, the drive 2 1/5 hours south to a store (what the hell am I doing working at 8PM on a Saturday - in Soledad, CA?? I'm a moron), then drive 2 1/5 hours more to reach the hotel mecca of Bakersfield, CA. I pulled in to my hotel last night aroun 11:15. ahead of schedule.

I stayed in a Comfort Suites (where I am at the writing of this), and the room is excellentg. It's like a mini palace. and only $80 for the night. (a steal in CA).

So, what next? I hop in the car and head out into the desert towards Vegas. I am really excited about this, as it's something I've always wanted to do. In my mind I always envisioned some crazy journey which involved me taking in with a biker gang, digesting some peyote, fighting off a snake to save a large-chested female by t he name of Super-Sherry, then cleverly outwitting the two sly hitmen who have mistaken me for a Columbian stoolie.

Most likely it will be four hours of my eyes glazing over and my mind reapeating "sand... so much sand...".

This may be my last post for a while, as Vegas usually does not offer any sort of internet use for their guests. You see, they want you out of the rooms, because outside of your hotel room you can't take a step without accidently gambling. What, I just stepped on a crack? Great, now my mom's back is broken and I lost $50.

My favorite kind of gambling? get loaded on the $1 Michelobs, hail a cab, and tell the driver to "Take me someplace fun". The fact that I haven't woken in a tub full of ice sans spleen amazes me.

Ok, folks, time to take the trek. after a Denny's run.

Epiphany

Ok, I just realized I probably got spammed thanks to the mention of the OC. what a bust.

COMMENT SPAM!!

Oh my Fing GOd, I am now officially somebody. That's right, as of the last post, I actually got an Annonymous comment. A comment that has a link attached to it that is nothing but net spam.

sweet.

I feel like I've hit the big times. I mean, who would have thought that my little ranting and raving page would have drawn the likes of spammers from somewhere deep inside the bowels of the electronic world. Of course, you know I just had to click on the link (dissappointingly NOT for penis enlargement), and so I'm sure that the owner of that site will now happily be using my credit card to buy himself an assortment of tawainese hookers. (No offense intended to the ladies of the Taiwan night!)

So, yeah, still on the west coast. I found out I get the luck(?) of driving to Begas on Sunday. I am actually excited about this, but the bad side is that I have to stop by a store and do some work. Some work meaning at least two hours. On top of a 10 hour drive. So I roll out at 8AM, I hit the big time at 8PM. This would be exciting to most people., but I intend on gambling VERY LITTLE. However, those $1 Michelobs at the Barbary Coast? I'm filling my pockets.

Tonight, on the OC...

Ok, so technically I'm not in the OC, but rather in San Francisco. The flight over wasn't bad at all. I watched king Arthur on the PSP - better then expected - and played a few games. Only real complaint was that I was stuck in an aisle seat as opposed to the much preffered window seat. This is why I prefer to buy my own damn tickets.

Of course this morning, as I arrive at the airport, I felt my usual bit of uneasiness. It's strange, with all the traveling I've done in the past two years, the actual leaving part doesn't seem to get easier. It's not that I'm nervous about the plane ride - I LOVE flying - but I just get in a bad mood on the way to the airport. I fight to keep my dinner from the night before down. Just generally miserable.
This really isn't all that unusual. What is unusual is that once I step up onto the curb, and walk through the automatically opening doors, woosh, I feel calm. From this point on, my trip is fine. The strangest thing is that I actually find airports not only serene, but down-right fascinating. All these people coming and going to everywhere all over the world. and all from all over the world. When I'm in places like this I really get a sense of amazement with human beings in general. I mean, in 300 years or so, we accomplished things men had dreamed of for 1000s of years. It scares me what the world will be like in 300 more years.
Of course none of us will be there to see it. and it could all go horribly wrong. *cough, cough, BUSH cough, cough*
So, yeah, anyway, back on the west coast. It really is a wonderful place (especially northern California), and if anyone hasn't been, well you should. Oh, yeah, and it's COLD. In PA we're still in heat wave mode, here? bring on the hayrides./ hells yes, I love autumn.

right, now I'm tired. I'm out.

Travelin' Again

Ok, before I start with the usual ranting and raving that you all love so much, I want to say a big HOWDY! to Beth Gourbiere! HI BETH! I saw you posted a comment to my last entry - and with a tip on some hot Catherine Keener action, no less - and am so glad that you are reading this as well. Mainly because I've been reading your blog, and felt semi-voyuerish.
So, a run down of this weekend's events. Friday night I don't remember, not because I was so bombed or anything, I just don't know that I did anything of importance. most likely became horizontal on the couch and then comatose.
The strangest thing about my couch is that it seems to intensify my internal heating mechanism. I throw off a lot of heat, various bed-mates have confirmed this fact, most likely do to the remnants of my once lightning-fast metabolism. (If I listen closely I can actually hear this once speedy body function grinding to a halt, the sound of sharp metal being drug along linoleum.) This heat-generation helps attract females and small woodland creatures during the cold winter months, but doesn't really effect me. However, when I pass out fully extended on the couch (which leads me to burrow into the back of the couch) I wake up doused in sweat. Somehow the couch actual bends thermal radiation and bounces the waves back at me. Maybe I can figure out how to harness this bizarre occurnce and help eleviate our energy crisis.
Speaking of energy crisis, just in time for record prices on gallons of gas, I purchase a V8 powered, 15.3 miles per gallon, Jeep Grand Cherokee. SUV. While yes, I feel a zen-like sense of well being at the fact that I can now safely travel distances - and STOP - I can not afford to travel said distances. my timing is impeccable.
So, continuing the weekend round-up, on Saturday, an event I had been waiting most of the year for occured. That being none other than Canstatter's annual Labor day Oktoberfest celebration. I had attended for the first time last year, where I proceeded to win a BAG OF MEAT, and became immediatly hooked. And yes, you read that correctly.
It was a wonderful time, as we planted our asses on a picnic becnch and proceeded to get our fill of German beer and schnitzel. I again did not have any leberkasse, and I am just going to assume that it will be a yearly ritual for me to bitch that I always eat too much, but never have the Leberkasse. A startling fact that we learned while there was that the members of the German club (which is what Canstatter is) produced 2000LBS OF POTATO SALAD for the evnt. ONE TON. That's alot of potato salad. And while, yes it was delicious, would it have hurt them to heat it up? That's the way we roll with the German Potato salad in Dutch Country.
Saturday and Sunday were spent drinking at some friends' house, playing a mass amount of boardgames and horseshoes. Saturday night I suffered a devestating loss in Boggle (best. game. ever.) at the hands of my friend Brynn - who was pronouncing it broggle, and was too drunk to complete a sentence. My story is that we were playing BIG boggle, and that the extra letters were throwing me off. Things were fine the next day as I dominated Big Boggle by a 25-point margin. A crew at the party played Risk, and for the first time I actually sat that one out. The fact that it was after 3 AM before the first army was eliminated seems to cement my desicion as a correct choice.
So, now back at work, one day before I hop on an aeroplane and take to the skies for lands west of here. My trip will involve the following locations over the next two weeks. Oakland, San Francisco, Las Vegas, LA, Denver. In something of that order. I'm contimplating putting my body in some form of detox through the trip, but the fact that I'll be away from all friends and family on my birthday assures me that that bloddy well won't happen. If you read this, and i know you, be warned, a red warning level should be considered for drunk-dialing occurances on the days of September 20th through the 21st.
Alright, wrapping this one up. It had been awhile, so I felt I should fill an extra big post. There's a high chance I'll be updating throughout my trip, as most hotels in CA support broadband access.