Monday, November 15 : Week 16

Woah, what a week! Monday thru Wednesday, I started my consulting gig, which is an interesting shift in my lifestyle. I wasn't able to score a hotel last week, so I was commuting a good three hours a day (which sucks), but the cash is good and the work is interesting so all is coolio.

Thursday, I started the day having lunch with my pal, Pierre. An interesting, talented young man (friggin' brilliant really) and it has been too long since we caught up. And the geng gai at Sawatadee was muy tasty. Then it was off to my parents house to celebrate my father's 75th birthday, and let me tell ya' I hope I'm enjoying life as much when I'm 55. He makes me sick! My sister Susan was the surprise guest star, though her arrival from Colorado was delayed by some lunatic running through security at Dulles. Had a great time catching up with her, and sisters Diane and Leslie, and nephew Luke. We got up Friday, and busted a move to West Virginia for a visit to the parent's new play house up there. Grabbed some chow at the club, where my father bantered with abandon with his favorite waitress. After some face down time, we got up and hit the road Saturday morning. Drove Luke back to his house, then ran some errands on the way home, thinking I was going to bail on my friends Doug and Tessa's party from sheer exhaustion. I was about ten minutes to home when Pierre called to guilt me into going, so I took a quick shower and blasted off to party. Great party, great time, I drank way too much whisky, but it tasted gooooood. I woke very early Sunday, with strangely no effect from the booze (note to self, beer bad, hard liquor good) and spent the bulk of the day getting ready for today, however I did have a chance to have my heart broken by the Redskins, so it wasn't a total loss.

Anyway, none of this is particularly interesting, but I found that my Hilton Garden Inn room has complimentary internet connectivity, so I wanted to take advantage of it! I'm in a room about the size of my apartment, and I think I'm going to sleep in both Queen beds tonight just for some random decadence! I'll be back soon, thanks for coming.

Fri-Sat-Sun, November 4, 5, 6: Week 15

God, forgot all about posting this thing. Been all caught up in getting ready for the job starting tomorrow, and I've been writing so many personal emails the journal just slipped my noggin. Anyway, the past three days have been many things, interesting but not particularly worthy of chatting about. I saw "The Incredible's" on Friday, which rocked, but the screening was interrupted by a fire alarm which led to much random chatting with my fellow movie goers. There's a lot of bitterness out there, and it's just sad, people gotta' get a grip and just deal. I mean, what if it turned into a raging fire in one of the restaurants downstairs? Yeesh, sure it was a bummer to have a 30 minute intermission, but life goes on baby. Spent a good chunk of change on shoes (needed), socks (needed) and ties (not needed) today, and it only struck me afterwards just how screwed I'll be if something happens to cause the revenue from this work from coming through. But I have faith in these guys, I'm sure the contract they signed is solid, and the client certainly isn't a fly by night operation (over 200 billion in accounts), so I should just enjoy my cool new socks and just relax.

Not that I've been as faithful to this journal as I should, but the next six weeks may well cause me to be less so. I will post on weekends at the very least, so I hope you come back for more of my hyper-exciting life.

Thursday, November 4: Week 14

I met the most excellent and lovely young woman this evening, and although I rambled incoherently most of the night, it was cool "art" rambling which I haven't been able to do in, like, forever!

A few weeks ago, I started trying to leverage the writers group on "Meetup.com" to see if I could energize some kind of community, and at the bare minimum, to see if could find some art pals. (If you're not an artist, you probably wouldn't get what I'm talkin' 'bout, talking about concrete reality vs. talking about idea is something I'm acclimated to, but do not find entertaining. And you boring people know who you are!) Anyway, this group has 50 members, but nobody seemed to ever talk to anybody else...which I find freaky given that it's called "meetup". I was able to get about six people to start at least posting to the message board, and take some polls, and to meet my goals of having some local folks to engage I set up a meet in my 'hood for this evening. I'd pretty much given up on it, but one person rsvp'd, so I scooted on out. Being the piss poor organizer I am, the venue I chose closed at 7:00 which is when I set the time, but hey if you want a party planner don't ask an artist. Luckily, I was able to meet Kat (who, true to her name, is a kitty), and had one of the best evenings I've had in a long time. She's terribly interesting, but the thing that set me to rambling incoherently is that she appeared to have an understanding of pretty much all of the cultural arcana I never bother to bring up, just because it draws such slack jawed blank stares. Hell, she knew who Joss Wheedon is, and she read and created friggin' comics growing up, I was in hog heaven! I hope she had half the fun chatting that I did, and I really hope this is the beginning of an ongoing relationship, I miss being able to share creative thinking and shooting ideas back and forth. Everybody bullshits, but nobody bullshits like a couple of writers. I loved it!

Wednesday, November 3: Week 14

What a friggin' disappointment! I wasn't really excited about Kerry, but I was excited about change, and I don't get no change dammit! I'm still convinced Rumsfeld is destroying the military we've worked so hard to build, with strategic, deployment and stop loss decisions all designed to piss off the volunteer. What a fucker, he wouldn't know sound military strategy if it bit him in the ass, and the crazy thing is I support his basic "transformation" philosophy. Well, it's like most of the Bush administration, good ideas with ham fisted execution. Bah!

On the upside, I had a pretty good day on the novel, and was happy to see the progress. I also started working my way through my "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" DVD's...that show rocks! But I can't afford to get addicted, I've got waaaaaaay too many to get through and if I don't watch out I'll be drooling in front of the tube for hours.

Got the final "go" for the consulting gig, so I'll be looking at some serious labor over the next six weeks, but it should be fun (well, fun-ish) and I get to wear grown-up clothes.

Tuesday, November 2: Week 14

Election Day, baby! Much gnashing of teeth over the choices, both presidential and local. I fear I'm becoming too much of a curmudgeon about the relative intelligence of the American voter, I mean, they just seem stupid...on both sides! I've been in DC long enough, and have paid enough attention to the process to know the bottom line: tension in polity gets results, and homogeneity gets lazy and stupid laws passed. I fear this election will favor a Republican hegemony, which will bring about my feared lazy/stupid period. Maybe I'm wrong, there's plenty of people up for Kerry, and he might pull it out.

Irrespective of the outcome, my neighbor Jennifer was working from home to prepare for her election party tonight, and we went up to vote together. It was crazy packed with humanity, but it also gave me a wonderful sense of patriotism, having seen so many elections in so many parts of the world degenerate into bloodbaths to be able to just hang out in a big-ass line during one of the most contentious elections of my life restored some of my faith in the lumpen proletariat.

At the end of the day, Jennifer's party was a delight, her guests were charming and the food most tasty. We did sort of degenerate into a room of people watching TV, but it was also compelling. I'm about to hit the sack, and it's looking very neck and neck, I doubt there'll be a resolution when I wake.

Monday, November 1 : Week 14

Okay, so October wasn't my most shining month from a productivity standpoint, I say this with no pride. However I had anticipated a slump like this when I started entertaining the idea of the outside consulting gigs which I knew would throw off my rhythm. That being said, I've also realized that even in the best of circumstances, there'll always be things that muck up the works and although I know this intellectually I think emotionally I look for the perfect. Retarded to be sure, but we all have our quirks. Anyway, I'm dedicating myself to truly rolling with the punches, and writing even when it's only for a moment, to keep momentum going on the novel no matter the circumstance. Yeah, big talk for a fat boy, but that's why I have this journal, to document the workings of my mind and have a way to audit the ups and downs. Awesome workout today, god how I love it!

Oh, and I've gotta' go back in and update the "Goals and Manifesto", cuz' I missed my goals by a mile! At least I was aggressive, which is better than being a wuss!