Author: brian

i helped my future roommate, gino, unload a u-haul of his big stuff into the new place last night, which gave me some jitters. how exciting, thinking about the nicer neighborhood we’re living in, and how the living room should be set up, and taking a break to sit on the mostly bare floor of our future home eating fast food. moving into new places is so exciting. carrying couches up elevators and down hallways isn’t exactly a thrill ride, but the potential of a new location is fun to think about.

sadly those jitters are accompanied by the moving out ones of thinking about leaving the house i’m in now. after helping him move from about 10 to 1, i came home and sat around with my housemates for a while before i went to bed, and they’re too great to think about parting ways with. it’s not a topic i enjoy dwelling on. i keep trying to focus on how much more fun we can have in the next couple months before the dreaded july 31st, and mostly it’s working, so i’m going to stick with it. i don’t want to picture not being able to come home and have an impromptu porch barbeque with my favorite people in the world; even if our house is falling apart and not close to anything. entirely beside the point.

[now hearing this: nothing. but we watched part of ghostbusters on tbs last night, and boy was the soundtrack to that pretty lame-tastic. and how did rick moranis make a career out of being an annoying dork?]

stressful busy, the kind of busy where you feel like there are a thousand things piling up on your back and you don’t want to do any of them and they’re going to crush you if you stop to take a breath, and all you want to do is come home and go to sleep and retract from the world for a few days, is one of the worst feelings. no one likes to feel like their life has them in its teeth and they’re being flung back and forth like a pork chop in a bulldog’s teeth. you should be the dog, not the chop.

that’s why i’m glad today was nothing like that. i felt great today; today wasn’t stressful busy at all. today was invigorating busy. i worked from 9 to 7 and probably did more varied and separate little tasks today than i have in a while at work. but i felt on top of it. i ran all over the place all day mailing this, checking that, fetching this, meeting with this person, handing forms over to that person. but the day flew by and i didn’t dislike a second of it. 7 came without me even feeling like i was stalling at any point along the way. then i came home and called up my future roommate — we officially got the apartment we decided on over the weekend: victory! — dropped off my part of a deposit check so he can start moving in tomorrow while i’m at work, then went out to a late dinner with a good friend who was upset about leaving her place now. the sad part of finishing school is starting to set in for some of us. people are moving away. but we went out to a good little restaurant called doughboy’s and had a tasty meal and talked about the girl i’m chasing and the trip to england she’s leaving for tomorrow, and i felt very young-adult-on-the-town.

i love days where i feel like i am very much who i want to be right now, and today was one of them. i really like my job, i’m excited about the new place, i love my friends (even the ones who are moving soon), and i especially love that i can go out any night of the week because nothing ever has to be done by the next morning anymore. the nights are mine and i’m making good use of them, goddammit.

if only there were a few more hours of it. well, i guess i can squeeze one more out of this one to read a few more chapters of glamorama at least. just to make it a little more full before i call it a day.

[now hearing this: rilo kiley – the execution of all things… “and sometimes when you’re on, you’re really fucking on…”

happy memorial day america!

happy birthday roommate dominic (who i had to wake up at 8 to bring to the airport for his flight to vegas)!

happy four day work week, friends.

hard to post when you’re having so much damn fun being a post-student human being. there’s just no time.

i don’t know if that’s really true. i’ve been happy as a clam lately though. friday especially was tip top. half day at work to wrap up my first week as a young professional; that’s great. getting off early and finally finding an apartment to live in after the house lease runs out, which we like and in a neighborhood we’re excited about; that’s great. (and even though we’re moving away from school, it’s probably closer to the new house of some friends of mine than i was when i lived here and they lived in a place on the other side of campus. it’s a terribly exciting coincidence.) coming home and hanging out with the chums on the verge of a three day weekend; that’s great. and going out to a party with some of my favorite people that don’t live close anymore who were up for the evening; that’s a nice way to finish it all off.

the rest of the weekend’s been pretty up to par too. lots of relaxing yesterday and some great thrift store finds today — 6 sweet new shirts and a new coffee table all for less than 35 dollars. who’s got the skills. plus we dove into my new netflix experience today, which i’m really excited about, with the movie haiku tunnel. it might not blow your socks off or anything but i thought it was great stuff. if you appreciate office comedies with some really weird characters and an unattractive fat man as the main character who apparently really likes the pixies — the soundtrack was almost entirely pixies stuff, i swear. it was kind of weird but made me want to listen to surfer rosa. i certainly lauhed enough to recommend it.

tomorrow is a national holiday, so you know what that means: barbeque. drop by for some beef and popsicles if you’re in the ‘hood around 3.

and before i’m off, a makeshift song of the week. honestly, i have been really bad about new music lately. i haven’t bought a cd in weeks and haven’t downloaded anything really breakthrough, but these things go in cycles anyway so i’m not worried. it does mean i’m sort of in a shelf-pulling mood lately though, grabbing lots of old stuff i hadn’t played in months, and even loading some of it onto my ipod, wishing i’d thought of that earlier. big example being analphabetapolothology from cap’n jazz. what a great cd. the volume knob has definitely been getting a few clicks when one of their songs comes on shuffle. try for example oh messy life. badass.

[now hearing this: alkaline trio – good mourning, and still not so sure how i feel about it.]

must…not…fall…asleep…

i’m sitting here at work having that old-school problem of wanting to doze off. this has never happened at work before, only in stupid economics classes. of course, there’s a perfectly good reason for it today: i only slept for about three hours last night, and unsoundly at that. thanks to never exactly making it home last night. ooo, scandal.

i mean, yesterday was just a big day all around. i started my real honest-to-goodness full-time year-round type job yesterday. 9 to 7 with an in-n-out lunch trip and a lot of congratulations and good-to-have-you’s from people around the office, which were all very encouraging. i think things are going to work out splendidly assuming i can make things work financially, which is only a matter of being smart, i think. but i feel really good about where i am and where it looks like it’s going to take me.

then there was the call that never came where i hoped to make evening plans, but then ended up coming, just later than i anticipated. this led to a trip out for some drinks which led to me returning home at 7:45 this morning — the time my alarm usually goes off — just in time to shower and go to work. and sure, despite the fact that more certainly could have been, i was sure ecstatic about what finally was. so staying up past 3am knowing full well i’d have to drive back to my house around 7, and now feeling like i can’t possibly stay awake until i will be getting off work tonight, are both well worth the momentous effort it’s taking not to pass out at my desk. because life isn’t about being productive every hour of every work day; it’s about seizing opportunities for victory and cherishing them while they last.

as soon as i rest up i’m gonna feel like a million buckszzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…

[now hearing this: people talking about me.]

when the parents are in town you don’t get to spend so much time wallowing at a computer. not that i ever really wallow, but you know what i mean. just been real busy.

busy graduating, that is! what an exciting weekend i’ve had. my god. friday it all ended. i’m not a college student anymore in any way. i’m all grows up and i’m all grows up and i’m all grows up. plus i got officially hired to my new job the day before that, so i’m really on my way now. i start my career on tuesday morning. with paychecks and trying to get promotions and all that. i’m so OLD!

i love it though, i really do. i’m excited; it’s like being on the end of a diving board and knowing you’re gonna do a badass flip any second now, for sure. and i will too, you just watch me.

before it all starts though we did have a most excellent sendoff lunch after the ceremonies friday afternoon. we had it catered by our favorite meaty eatery, bbq king, ordered some pizzas, a keg, and went to town. over 70 relatives and friends of the 9 graduates came by and we made them all eat heartily. everyone had a great time, the weather was great, and we got lots of compliments for putting on a great thing on our own. we impressed those families, let me tell you. i even made a nice lame speech and we took a bunch of cheesy group photos. as was necessary. best day in a long time.

my only regrets were that the food was about 45 minutes late, and not being able to do a cartwheel across the stage when going to receive my diploma on account of those stupid hats. ah well.

now the families are departing for homes and i’m getting ready to catch up on a lot of sleep. i didn’t think i missed that much but for some reason i am totally wiped out right now. perhaps it was just a big week and my body needs to retreat into dreamland to let itself recouperate; perhaps it was drinking too many beers in the afternoon sun then going out and drinking more until 3am last night. either way, time to veg out for a bit.

ps: if anyone feels congratulatory and wants to send fabulous graduation gifts, please email me and i will gladly forward my address. hugs and kisses also accepted.

[now hearing this: hey mercedes self-titled ep from way back.]

today on the way to work, i was driving through south central los angeles as usual, listening to my ipod as usual (through the car stereo, not headphones. don’t worry, i’m safe), and then i saw this guy flipping out on the opposite sidewalk. sort of jumping up and down and flailing around a little. now, i didn’t hear him so i can’t say for sure, but once i got closer and drove past him, i became almost certain that he was a 40-50 year old gray-haired black man having an argument with a telephone pole. honest to god, we was looking directly at it and very animatedly yelling. he was hopping, he was so mad. he even kicked it a few times, which i can only imagine made him madder — the telephone pole didn’t seem to back down even an inch.

i really love living in the city.

[now hearing this: gang starr mp3’s.]

i think i can calm down long enough to share some good news with everyone before the time has passed. it’s finally happened. i’ve taken my last exam of my last year of college. it’s done. no more schoolwork. for real. forever. that’s it. and i absolutely couldn’t be happier.

a good day all around really. a few hours of lunch/study date with that girl i’m still chasing, which was great and educational at the same time, somehow. it was a cute little scene, sitting against each other on a bench in the lunch area, looking over notes and talking about marginal costs and externalities. adorable, really. then i actually did well on the test and sailed the fuck out of that place for hopefully the last time ever. sayonora, marshall school of business! thank you for trying to steal my soul and FAILING! i’m not the cold homogenous networking machine you wanted me to be, but somehow i think i’ll be alright.

ahem. so tonight it’s kicking it like a fat lazy sack and probably going out for a celebratory 3 dollar martini with some other folks who have had the same pleasure of terminating their undergraduate careers this fine afternoon. cheers!

[now hearing this: more rock. it’s a rock kind of day. was coalesce’s revolution in just listening, now it’s strung out’s suburban teenage wasteland blues, which i haven’t put on in probably a year or more. still pretty tight though.]

6 hours and it’s over 6 hours and it’s over 6 hours and it’s over 6 hours and it’s over 6 hours and it’s over…

[now hearing this: loud, aggressive rock of all kinds.]

apartment hunting, working, trying to wrap up school and enjoy as much of my last weeks as a student all at once, so it’s hard to find time to sit idly at a computer desk, and too busy at work to find time to do it then. big changes coming down the line though, huh? if things go well i could be a lot happier in about two weeks. that or dead.

so even if there are stories to tell i should be studying microeconomics instead of telling them, so sorry fans. next week will be better. readers digest version: friday night, last party at spencer’s, saturday apartment hunting all day, bbq/pool party in the high desert at night. backflips hurt when you mess them up.

not to be a total flake though, how about a song of the week? when my ipod runs out of batteries in the car lately, i’ve been flipping to one of two local classic rock station to fill the void; as a result, i’ve been downloading some favorites to add to my ipod once i get home. gotta diversify that library, you know. there are so many songs that you never think to grab until you hear them randomly some afternoon on the way home from work. best example recently, i think, has been, american girl by tom petty. i love this song, and i can see why so many people thought the strokes were so great — they copied some really good musicians.

[now hearing this: simpsons.]