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Showing posts from November, 2008

Mashed Potatoes

It's Thanksgiving and I am feeling quite tired from the turkey and the wine. I stuffed myself with mashed potatoes and gravy and pillsbury cresent rolls and it was well worth it. I have taken a little flack for not wanting any pie. I'd rather fill myself with carbs than sweets. I just don't like sweets. I retreated to upstairs after a watching a few episodes of House , which apparently is on a marathon today. Now, the kids and some adults are watching Home Alone while other adults play dominoes at the now empty kitchen table (I was invited but I turned it down). Others are sitting in another room talking about one uncle's recent trip to Russia. I can hear all of their conversations (and the moving ochestral theme song to Home Alone . I'm having trouble enjoying any of this holiday this year. My cousin, Ryan, died two days ago. He lived in New Jersey with my uncle on my mom's side, my aunt, and his two brothers. He was seventeen. He died of brain cancer and I ju

Busy Week

This has been a very busy week for me. So much so, that I slept until about 11:30 this morning and still feel exhausted. It's a little after 1pm right now and I am eating lunch, which seems to be rejuvenating me. So that's good. Finally. All of the busy-ness started Monday when I checked my email in the morning and found a brief message from Mike Guzzo, who runs Crumbs.net , a local music website. I visit his site quite often and enjoy his Crumbs Cafe internet radio show, which features interviews and performances from local musicians and songwriters. I also visit and some times reply to posts on the Crumbs.net blog, which is a part of Albany's Times Union News Website. The reason for Guzzo's (as many people refer to him as) email was to have me call him. I called him later that day and he asked me to contribute to the Crumbs.net blog and, in particular, post my Inside the Open Mic episodes there. I enthusiastically agreed and my first post can be read here . Soon, I&#

Emerging

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I'll be "emerging" this coming Wednesday (the 19th) at Caffe Lena's Emerging Artist Series. The show is at 7pm and features me and my guitar and my songs. I'm pretty excited about it. I've been playing at Lena's open mic for years and I love it there. The atmosphere is wonderful. It's not always easy to get a true gig at Lena's, however, because there are just so many songwriters and performers and genres and only certain of those are tested to bring in an audience. I'm hoping I get a decent crowd. I've put up flyers at the Caffe and Borders and Uncommon Grounds. I've also handed out some small flyers at the Caffe during open mic last week. I invited some co-workers and put up flyers at my job. I'm also planning on bringing my guitar to my training next week and trying to get a few other trainee's to come. And, of course, I sent out emails and bulletins on myspace. Perhaps, I'll send out another round of each. I started work

Interesting or Witty Title Here

Wi-Fi frustrates me. Or at least, hooking my computer up to wireless connections at any place other than my house frustrates me. Last night, I went to Starbucks and spent about 45 minutes trying to figure out why, when I do everything I'm supposed to do to hook up to Wi-Fi, I couldn't hook up to the Wi-Fi. I discovered something else that I can try after I had left Starbucks. So, I'm going to try to find a local hot spot later today and try again. Earlier that night, I frustrated an exasperated Gap employee. This occurred after I had sat down on a display of corduroy pants. I had a headache and I wasn't really into shopping (besides the fact that I had just been at the exact same Gap one week ago), so I sat down to rest while I waited for Stephanie to try on some jeans or something. Soon after, I noticed a Gap employee walking towards me pushing a cart. She stopped when she saw me. Turned around and walked toward another Gap employee. She threw her arms up and shook her

Voting

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I voted about fifteen minutes ago. I took a picture of myself with the "I Voted" sticker on my forehead. I'd be writing ten minutes ago if it wasn't for my attempt to put the sticker on my cat and take a picture of her, too. Note: there is no and will never be a picture of the cat with a sticker on it -- so says the cat. Anyway, I am way too excited about being able to vote today. I shouldn't be, but I am. It's not because I am hoping that my vote will change the world. Or that my choice in candidate is actually going to be able to fix everything that the last President fucked up. I'm just glad I got to vote in this election. You see, I have been unable to vote in the last one and the one before that and the one before that. I registered to vote (by filling out the proper registration card) four times in that time period and it still meant nothing to the board of elections. That is because my name comes with a "II" after it and the geniuses over

Trick

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It was Halloween. Four young children dressed up in exciting costumes (a bee, a princess, a storm trooper, and a teddy bear) walked the streets in search of candy. Their parents were only a short few steps behind them. They found a house with a light on. It might have been the 10th house on their excursion. It might have the 12th or so. Either way, it was certain to have someone handing out candy (hopefully peanut butter cups or twix -- not hard candy like the old people give out. The good stuff.) They made their way up the walk to the brick steps. The house was white. The bee rang the door bell and their anticipation rang along with the chime. Soon, a youngish looking man, wearing a checkered grey scarf and a black hooded sweatshirt, came to the door. He stuck his head out and then stepped down on to the porch. He didn't have any candy. "I am so sorry," said the youngish looking man, "we totally ran out of candy and we don't have any left to give you. We forgot