So many choices

It turns out Boston is a great city to live in if you like going to concerts. So far I have been able to get tickets to anything that I have wanted to see.

Today I read about two upcoming shows that I'd go to. Both are club shows, and both are cheap.

The Von Bondies are playing at Axis on 10/1. Problem - I am going to see Wilco that night.

The Kings of Leon are playing at Axis as well, but on 10/7. Problem - I am going to see the Killers play that night.

It figures. The one city where I can get any tickets I want, and there are multiple conflicts. Good problem to have I guess.

Which do you want to hear first?

Good news: Got tickets to see Pearl Jam at the Fleet Center in October. I've never actually been to see them before. This should be fun.

Bad news: I over-did it at the gym yesterday with too much weight on the middle and upper back machines, and now I am in a serious spasm/pain cycle. Good times.

Fright Night

This week started of pretty badly. Brother and his fiancee were up in New Hampshire for a wedding. They borrowed a car from Mom & Dad for the weekend. And apparently they did not communicate their plans or schedule well to any one.

At about 10:00pm Sunday night we got a call from my parents. "Have you heard from Brother?" Nope. "Neither of their cells is on." I explained that they were probably driving home, and hitting traffic, and in a no cell reception area. "OK," Mom said, "we're on our way home too, and should be there by 11."

Midnight. We're asleep. "Ring ring." I let the machine get it. It was Mom. "Hi. We're just calling you back. Talk to you soon."

Hmmm. That was weird. Mom called at midnight just to let us know they were home ok? Guess so. Parents can be weird.

2:30am. "Ring ring." My cell phone. "Hello??" "Hi Salty. It's Dad. They're not home yet."

Gulp. (That's me swallowing my heart back down into my chest.)

"Um, ok Dad. Maybe they decided to spend the night somewhere. It was a Sunday wedding, so maybe they were too tired to drive. Or they probably went off to elope. That's all it could be. You know they are flighty sometimes. And Fiancee's mom is coming into town tomorrow. So maybe they eloped so everyone could be there tomorrow to celebrate. Get some sleep."

I hung up the phone. I called both their cells. Both straight to voicemail. That means they are probably asleep somewhere. But... Who knows? Damn. Mom is always insane about this shit. Dad is more rational, but he guilts himself into buying Mom's craziness. Now they will both be up all night. So now I'm worried about Brother, and Mom and Dad. Shit.

Let's be reasonable. Let's see if we can find a cell number for someone else who would be at the wedding. Shit. Nothing. Ok. Let's be an adult. We'l deal with some scary shit, for the likely outcome of comfort. "Hello? Is this New Hampshire Highway Patrol? Were there any big accidents tonight? None? Ok. Thanks."

"Hello? Is this Massachusetts Highway Patrol? Any big accidents tonight? None? Ok thanks."

"Hello? Is this Rhode Island Highway Patrol? No accidents? Thanks."

"No major accidents tonight in Connecticut tonight? Thanks."

"Oh, they would get in touch with the car owner right away if there was a major accident in New York? Ok. And there were none that you heard of tonight? Ok. Thanks."

Now it was 4:00am. I IM'd Dad, who was online, and told him about my calls. No major accidents all along their route home, and the car's owners would have been notified. They are definitely sleeping or married somewhere. We could have the cops go to their apartment and see if they are there. No? Too much? Ok. Go to bed then Dad.

I realized there was little I could do at this point. I was not about to start calling hospitals. Brother is usually at work by 6:00am. I would sleep until then, and call his office. If he was unaccounted for there, then I would shit myself.

5:50am. Alarm clock goes off. I had several different dreams about Brother and his fiancee. In one, they showed up here with Mom and Dad, and they had been married. It was all good. In another, they were in NYC, they had been home the whole time. But these were dreams. It was 5:50am, and they were still missing. I called his office. No answer. Shit. Maybe he'll go in later today, after a long weekend. Ok. Back to bed.

6:20am. Pegg's alarm goes off. Time for her to get up for work. Let me try Brother's office again. No answer. Shit. This is weird. I talk to Pegg for a bit about where they could be. "Buzz buzz." My cell phone. Text message:

"Hi Saltydog! We had the wedding last night and just left new hampshire to pick up my mom from the airport. talk to you later! -fiancee"

Phew. Phew! Absolute relief like I have never experienced. I called Mom and Dad. Told them everything was fine. They hadn't slept. Mom broke down in sobs. I got off the phone and went back to sleep. Had normal dreams about sushi and beer and big tv's. Everything was ok.

Now, here's the funny thing. Brother and fiancee never knew they were "missing." Brother swears that he told me and Dad all along that they were planning to stay Sunday night and sleep it off. Now, our nuclear family consists of three men and one woman. There is only one good listener in the bunch. You can bet who that is. So can I swear, for sure, that he never told me this? No. Would I swear on Dad's behalf? Never. However, I remember asking Brother if they would want to swing by Boston on their way home. "Nah. It will be too tight. We'll be driving home from the wedding, and fiancee's mom is coming in the next day, so we'll just want to get back." Or something like that.

What do I think? I think that Brother changes his plans often, and doesn't always keep such good track of who he's told what to. I think that Brother thinks he told us they were coming home Monday. I think that this was a big mix up. I think that was one of the worst nights of my life, and I am somewhat rational. I think that Brother took several years off the lives of Mom and Dad that night. I think that we're all just grateful nothing was wrong. I think that Brother's fiancee over time will need to compensate for his flakiness, and make sure that the rest of us are informed of their plans. I think that I am going to give her a good talking to when I see her this weekend. I think that I am going to punch Brother in the head when I see him this weekend. I think that really, I'll just hug them both good and hard instead. Little shits.

Day trip to Rockport

(Pegg took this one.)








"Motif No 1" - the most painted/photographed building or spot in Rockport. Truth.


Last sunday Pegg and I decided to take a drive to Rockport. It's a small coastal town near Salem and Gloucester.

We got up relatively early, for us, and hit the road.

It was a beautiful day. Traffic was light. Sun was out. It was a nice day for a drive.

We spent most of the day walking around the town, stopping in at little shops, and taking in much of the scenery. We stopped at Tuck's Homemade Candies to pick up a treat. We got a lot of sun. Grabbed some lunch at Portside Chowder House. Clam chowder and lobster rolls. Yummy. Then we sat on a bench overlooking a small strip of public beach. An elderly couple was sitting next to us on the bench. I imagined us sitting there in 50 years. It made me smile.

Good. Real good.

I'm digging Real right now.

Their Real Player Store is trying to compete with iTunes. In order to do so, they have cut prices in half. $4.99 albums, and 49-cent tracks.

And their Rhapsody streaming service is free for a week or so right now. With it, you can use your computer to listen to any song in their catalog. Anything you've been wanting to hear, or maybe sample before you buy.

Here's what I've purchased so far:

Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
The Killers - two unreleased tracks from the Somebody Told Me single
The Pharcyde - Humboldt Beginnings
Dizzee Rascal - Boy In Da Corner
The Music - The Music
Shyne - Godfather Buried Alive
213 - The Hard Way

Let's Stay In For Dinner, And See A Movie

Friday night two of my friends from high school and their wives came over for dinner. I cooked up some chicken parm, pasta, and a big old salad. Nothing fancy, but it was pretty tasty, if I do say so myself.

One of my friends and his wife are both teachers, and they live about 40 minutes outside of Boston. They tend to just take the summer off, as opposed to doing another job, which sounds awesome. It is similar to the position I am in now, that of being able to sit on my ass in August, but better. They know this is what they are supposed to be doing, and that work will start up again exactly when it is supposed to. I, on the other hand, am not 100% relaxed in this summer vacation mode I'm in. I definitely have a little bit of future-anxiety going on. Not enough to drive me crazy, but enough to color my dreams a bit. More of a nuisance than anything, really. But I digress....

My other friend is a medical resident. His wife also works for the hospital system. They live in Jamaica Plain, home of the JP Licks ice cream company. They were both off Friday, so they took the time to bake brownies for us. Nice. Few things in this world are as good as home-made brownies.

Dinner was nice. We drank a lot of wine. Talked a lot. Then we all watched Donnie Darko. Pegg and I had it out on Netflix, and had watched it a few days prior. None of our guests had seen it, and we had been planning another viewing before we returned it, so it worked out well. After the movie we watched the deleted scenes, and talked about the film a bit. These are all smart folks, so it was a good conversation.

This was our first crack at "entertaining" since we bought a dining room table and chairs. It felt good to have dinner guests, and pretend we were all grown up.

Who's the big winner?

So timing is a bitch. Just as I move to Boston, and start to get settled in, Champy gets lured to New York. I can't really blame him. He's going to be working with Red and the Drummer Boy. We all used to work together in 1997/1998. It was a blast. And now they get to do it again. Long live Turkey Time!!! (Inside thing - don't worry about it.) It's really a great thing for Champy, and it should be a pretty good thing for H-Bomb. I know she's giving up a lot for this move, but so much good will come of it too. New job. New friends. New adventures. Hey, I'm going through it myself right now. It's not so bad.

Anyway, the point is that I need to take advantage of any chance we get to hang out, because they are splitting soon. So last night I got together with Champy and his friend G. They were at a bar in Central Square, where they both live. So after going to the gym with Pegg, I headed out to the bar to join them.

The bar was hosting a promotion. It was a joint promotion between a radio station and a drink company. You had to buy their brand of drink to enter the contest. If you had their drink in your hand, you could go up to their table and fill out an entry form. The prize was a trip to NYC for two to see the Red Sox play the Yankees, hotel accommodations and transportation included. Sweet prize. In addition, when you gave them your entry, you could take one thing from their schwag table. They had hats, t-shirts, etc... There was an XBOX game on the table too. I asked if that was up for grabs. They said sure, take it. So I was psyched right there. Free XBOX game just for doing what I was there to do - having a drink.

We hung out there for a while, because the grand prize winner was to be chosen at 10pm. Them emcee gets on the mike, gives his little promotional spiel, and announces the winner. It was me! Holy fucking shit! I won! I never win anything. What a sweet prize too! I was ecstatic. The emcee hands me the mike and I go "This is great! I just moved here from New York, and I'm a Yankees fan. Now I get a trip home, and I get to see the game too!"

The bar went silent. There were a few boos. One guy mumbled "good way to make friends". I pumped my fists into the air, and sat down again to finish my drink. "Screw you haters," I thought. "I'm the big winner."

Royal Visit

We went to see Prince at the Fleet Center Tuesday night. What an awesome show!!

Pegg knew someone who was going, and so she decided to look into tickets. She realized that day that good seats had apparently been released for sale. So we got on ticketbastard.com and got the best seats we could find.

Turns out that our seats were great. The stage was in the center of the stadium, and we had 10th row in the first non-floor section, right on one side of the stage. It was basically center-ice, if we had been there for a hockey game. And because the sides of the stadium are narrower than the ends, there were barely any rows of floor seats between us and the stage. So we got really lucky.

Before the show we met up with Pegg's friend and his buddy. We went to Sullivan's on Canal Street, because Grand Canal was too crowded. Grabbed a couple of drinks with them, then went into the stadium.

I don't think I realized how much purple there would be. :-) These fans are really loyal. The best, though, was the 6-foot-5 white guy we saw in a Patrick Ewing-esque purple suit. Big pimpin' my man.

The show itself was really amazing. I have never been to such an animated stadium show. People were just into it. Everyone was dancing for basically the whole show. And the band was so tight, I almost didn't believe it was a live show. He's got Maceo Parker in his band! Everyone else in the band was fantastic as well. I especially liked the drummer, John Blackwell. It was cool to compare his performance to that of Rush's Neil Peart, who is considered among the best.

My only complaint was that some of my favorite songs (When Doves Cry, Kiss, Raspberry Beret, etc..) got glossed over in medleys. Otherwise it was a fantastic set. Here is the setlist.

Canadian rock

Went to see Rush Thursday night at the Tweeter Center. Pegg's friend from her last job got us free tickets. It was pretty cool of him. I happened to briefly mention being somewhat of a Rush fan when we were out one night and Tom Sawyer came on. He remembered this, and hooked us up with the tickets.

The show was really good. It's their 30th Anniversary tour. They are pulling out all the hits. And I think they play the same set each night, so it should be tight.

Pegg got the most enjoyment out of their video footage, which happened to be very funny. Some of the clips had Jerry Stiller starring as a big Rush fan. Pegg's other favorite part was my comment that the audience there was perhaps the ugliest, grittiest audience of any show we had ever been to. We couldn't figure out if it was Rush, Massachusetts, or an unfortunate combination. We agreed that it was the combination.

Parking at the Tweeter center is a bitch, and it takes forever to work your way out of the lots in lines of traffic. Knowing this, and knowing that Pegg had to get up early the next day for work, we cut out before the encore. I had read that most of the encore was covers anyway, so this was an ok move. We got out in a reasonable amount of time, which was good considering the drive home sucked balls. It was pouring the entire ride home.

Oh yeah. Two observations about the Tweeter Center. First, beers cost $8. Fucking hell. Second, there was absolutely no security. None. They just scanned our tickets, and let us right in. No bag checking. No metal detector wands. NOTHING. Fucking hell.

Bull... Shit. Bull... Shit. Bull... Shit.

This is total crap.

Last I checked, the Olympic games constitute an international competition. Meaning countries compete against each other.

Every other country there will go ape-shit and wave their flags around when they win something.

I could care less about the Olympics, really. But our athletes should have as much right to celebrate and show their pride as any other country there.

Come on already. Even a liberal Kerry supporter like me appreciates a good bit of Old Glory waving and a "U. S. A." chant once in a while.

Roger

Got Wilco tickets today. Guess Boston isn't so bad...

Also went for dim sum lunch in Chinatown with Champy. The name of the place was Pacific Gardens. It's in the basement, on the corner of Beach and something or other...

The way it worked at this place is that they give you a dim sum menu, like an a-la-carte sushi sheet. You mark down what you want, then they bring it fresh from the kitchen. So while you don't get the pleasure of watching the carts roll by, and choosing from unknown delights, you do get the extraordinary pleasure of eating fresh, hot, made to order dim sum. Definitely a fair trade-off.

We had big eyes, and ordered ourselves up a nice little spread.

- Baked pork buns
- Shrimp and chive dumplings
- Shrimp and pork dumplings
- Clams in black bean sauce
- Salt and pepper shrimp
- Rice noodle roll ups with shrimp (they call them fajitas!)
- Fried sesame shrimp spring rolls

I'm just noticing now how shrimp-heavy our choices were. We would have made Benjamin Buford 'Bubba' Blue proud.

Everything was good. The stand-outs were the salt and pepper shrimp, the pork buns, and the shrimp and pork dumplings. The salt and pepper shrimp are fried whole, with shells, tails, and heads intact. At first I was squeamish about not removing the head and tail fins, but then I got over it. They tasted very good, heads and all.

Walked home from there, talking to Champy about our respective job situations. We're both kind of at crossroads, so it comes up often.

I couldn't avoid the pull of Newbury Comics. Had to buy some cheap CDs. So much music that I want. Hard to resist albums that I'd like when they are $8.99 or $9.99. I'm a bad boy. But I did buy my very first Pixies CD. Rinweeney will be proud.

Things I realized at the gym tonight

1. The Jay-Z song "Money, Cash, Hoes" with DMX is great to work out to.
2. When the Jessica Simpson video with her dancing around in a rainbow belly shirt and a mini-skirt comes on, all men in the gym conveniently stop for a break.
3. After you've had your "complimentary" introduction session with the trainer, it is very awkward to see them in the gym. One, because you shot down their pushy sales pitch for personal training. Two, because you are blatantly disregarding everything they taught you in your session.

Little Boy Lost

I feel like a lost soul.

Yes, yes. This is a whiny career post.

No, no. I don't really feel like a lost soul, nor do I particularly want to talk about it beyond what I will write here.

I have been without a job for over a month now. While a month may seem like a long time, the month in question has certainly passed in the blink of an eye. I am not pulling my hair out. Nor am I restless. I happen to be fairly content with how I pass my days.

Pegg wakes up at about 6:30am for work. I hear her getting ready, and feel her kiss me goodbye, and then fall back to sleep for a bit. Usually by 8 or 8:30 I am up, and ready for another day.

I make coffee. I have breakfast. I fuck around on the internet. I fuck around with my resume some. I watch some TV. I do some laundry or straighten up a bit in the apartment. Usually I will venture out on an errand, or for a walk, or for some food. Today, for example, I met Champy for lunch. Then I'll wait for Pegg to get home so we can make dinner, or go to the gym, or go out with friends. Not a bad way to spend the day, I tell you.

My problem is not that I am unhappy with this lifestyle. My problem might even be somewhat opposite. My problem is this: I know it can't last. I must work. I just don't know what I want to do.

Since college I have worked in technology. Computers. Servers. Applications. Systems. This is all I feel I am qualified to do. The problem is, I barely feel qualified to do this. I don't have much of a background in it. I was a Psychology major, after all. I've been faking it a bit, for years. Now I have time on my hands. Time I could use to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. Unfortunately I don't really have the foggiest idea.

Part of me thinks I should just take the best tech job I can find. Get back to work, ASAP, and start saving again. Then I will have income and stability behind my craziness, and can take all the time in the world to figure things out.

Another part of me is realistic enough to know that if I take another tech job, then that is what I will wind up doing indefinitely. I would stick with that until something major happened. Until an offer to do something else fell into my lap, or until we needed to move, etc... I wouldn't spend my free time looking for a real career. That's just me.

So here I am in limbo. I know I need to work. I know my only qualifications are for tech jobs. I know I might want to do something else. So I am half-heartedly starting to look into tech openings, silently hoping that something better comes my way.

Is it possible to feel so pigeon-holed this early in my career? I guess so.

Hot Fuss

Just bought tickets to see The Killers in Boston. Yay.

Boston so far

Some Boston highlights from our time here so far:

• Dinner at Charley's with friends.
  
• A night of no-limit hold 'em at Dr. & Dr. Beasties' place.
  
• Dinner at Koreana with H-Bomb (formerly known as Mrs. Champy) and Champy.
  
• Giant beers at Pour House. These beers must be a pint and a half, for less money than a pint in NYC. So there! :-P (Just look at the pics!)
  
• Dinner at Brown Sugar with friends. Most extensive Thai menu I have ever seen.
  
• Yankees vs. Red Sox game at Fenway (7/25) - thanks to H-Bomb & Champy.
  
• Chowder (ahem, "chowdah" to you) and fried clams at Legal Seafoods.
  
• Scorpion bowls and Mai Tais at the Tiki Room near Fenway. And the spicy appetizer poo poo platter. Yumm.
  
• Breakfast at Cabot's. Mmm. Banana hotcakes with strawberries on top. Mmm.
  

I think that about covers it for now.

Oh, yeah:

• Being with Pegg for the most consecutive days we've had together in over two years. We live together again!! {sigh}
  

Broken Crate

In the last post I alluded to some time spent in the suburbs of Boston last week. I forgot to tell the best story from our time out there.

We are looking for a couple of small furniture items for our new apartment. We have been to stores that range from Pottery Barn to Target. (Yes, Target is the only store so far where we have purchased anything....) One of our stops was Crate & Barrel in the South Shore Plaza mall. They had some ok stuff there, but the price:quality ratio was too steep. Anyway, we're walking over to ask someone a question, and I see this comfy looking chair. I'm still a little kid in many ways, so I had to touch the surface of the comfy looking chair to see what it felt like.

Well, this comfy looking chair was not sitting squarely on its little display pedestal. One little rub of its cushion knocked its leg back the lone millimeter necessary to send the whole chair off balance. Good thing the stack of cocktail shakers was there behind it, to slow its fall. I got to watch in slow motion as about 50 of these shakers, and the 1-inch thick glass shelf used to stack them, came crashing down.

There is nothing quite so musical as the loud clanging of 50 metal objects paired with the crash of a glass shelf. The only thing louder than this was the "oh shit!" that I heard in my teeny, little brain.

As if this wasn't embarassing enough, Pegg later told me that while I was bending down to help the poor salespeople clean up, I had a little crack problem. That's right. Plumber's butt. The cherry on top of my embarassment sundae.