what did you make from the time and the solitude

well well well. howdy and hello to whoever may pass their eyes over this.

not so much to report on, per se, but i feel some kind of restless stirring inside which usually means i have to write it out. or flee. i choose write. i choo-choo-choose you.

the soundtrack over here: wings, aerosmith (!), r.e.m, belle & sebastian, faces, stray cats: a varied muddle of rock and pop with an emphasis on embarrassment, akin to my life, really.

i've been eating books for some time now and i just finished great expectations. i think i am still really affected by the sadness of this story. i've moved on to the beautiful and the damned, and i don't anticipate it to be a happy story, but i believe it to be a bit lighter, and this will make all the difference.

the weather is rainy and i imagine it will rain for most of april. i don't mind this so much because i want everything to turn green and good. i've started some seeds indoors that will eventually go into a "garden" (i quote it because said garden doesn't yet exist and its hard for me to believe it ever will, or that it will support any kind of life at all) the thing i am most excited about is building a compost bin and no longer throwing away organic waste. what a waste!


my one whim recently has been building outfits with the liberty that season change brings. its a thrill again! i've also been making pickles. pickles! you wouldn't believe how easy this is, and i don't really want to convince you of it, because i may try to make money off this in the future. oh and KETTLE CORN. do you know that i can make this delight in the privacy of my own home without the use of a microwave? if that isn't a present from god, i don't know what is!

i've joined the local co-op and i am excited to try out the job of working the cash register and also working in the produce department. i wonder which will be more fun? i sort of like the idea of working in bulk foods also, but i will save that question for another week. the radio station has upped my on-air time and now i am on m-f from 6-9pm! its pretty crazy that i am actually on the radio, and i don't think i talk about how funny this is even close to enough. i am proud of myself! isn't that something! (exit977.org to stream online)

i believe that's about all i have to report on. i've been thinking about doing a video blog for a while but i think i just used up all my material, so i guess it will have to wait until something else news-worthy happens. i'm going to attach a few pictures so there is a bit of a visual for this word heaviness.
showers of love!

the great albany bowl-crawl part 1 - olympic lanes

okay sooooooo hello hello! sorry about my prolonged absence, i have a new project i am working on and i am here to report!
my friend christine recently moved back to the area and we discovered we share an extreme love for bowling. thus i found my partner to set my bowl-tour in motion. i have compiled a list of all the bowling spots within 30 miles or so, and each week we will visit a new bowling alley and bowl and eat a snack and drink beer and take a few snaps and then i will come home and blog about each and rate the aspects of each.


tonight we started our bowl quest at olympic lanes in menands!



olympic lanes is massive, and air-hanger-esque. you can see it when you drive on 378 to get to the albany rural cemetary, but reaching it is much harder than you would think. i got lost in deep dark menands and it was pouring rain! obviously i found it eventually, and christine was waiting with her shoes on. shoes were 2 dollars, which i thought was cheap. the desk girl said you pay for the lane when you are done bowling. cool. it took FOREVER to find the right bowling ball, which is fairly annoying. not sure where all the 8-10 lb ones were, but they were scarce!





started things out right with a pint of bud ($2.25) and an order of onion rings ($2.50) i wanted nachos but the snack guy told me "my cheese machine is broken today" bummer dude, total bummer.



here is the snack station. i wish i got one with the man who ran it. he was nice and had a nice face. the menu was pretty typical, but maybe a bit short, and it doesn't really have much snack bar character.



the first game i was semi-paying attention but i bowled pretty poorly. i chalk this up to a few things: sub-par ball, too excited about drinking beer and eating onion rings, catching up with christine, out of practice. i scored a 76 and christine kicked my ass with a 132. embarrassing pour moi!
second game was pretty even: 80 something to 90 something (christine won again)
third game: 100 to 103, i took this one!
the way i see it: at least i was on a steady incline.



we returned our shoes and found out we owed $9.75 EACH for the lane. apparently it was $3.25 per person per game. i think that is too much! this brings the place down a few notches.
i wish i had snapped the bar, because it was really big and had a pool table and its own entrance.

at the end we talked shop with the two owners, george and george (aka john). they are greek, hence olympic lanes. ha. they say this is the oldest bowling alley in the albany area, open since 1957, but if its so old then how come the inside looks renovated and not awesome?! hmmmmm?? george and george asked us to come back and bring our friends. i told them we were doing a tour and trying out all spots and they said "we are the best, why look around?" oh george! and george. you guys just don't understand our quest for the creepy!

rating (out of 5)(i may change this system):
price: 3
equipment: 2
snackbar: 2
bar: 4
character: 3
overall: 2.8

join me next time! whole new place and whole new set of rules! (i lie)

i asked of my reflection: what is there to do?

howdy!






off to the radio station! then its pickle time!

the sun ain't nearly on the rise, and we've still got the moon and stars above

i couldn't fall asleep last night after i read the ultimate sleeping pill book (great expectations), which, as it turns out, isn't really a sleeping pill after all! i wonder if pip will end up with estella. please don't tell me!

so, as i lay awake in bed, i started composing short snippits for blogs or journals or what-have-you in my head, and of course, in true form, i forgot them all. i'm sure they all had to do with life. actually!

i remember that i wanted to talk about how the world is actually turning. this is some kind of incredible feat. really. think about this. think about the earth being a huge ball and all of us dudes live on it and its actually turning around and around. think about patsy cline saying 'oh, stop the world and let me off' think about 'as the world turns' this is a reality in our lives!

i was also thinking about how life is really just a series of funny coincidences. "floating all accidental like on a breeze" how it is just like jumping from star to star and creating your very own constellation. isn't that nice? choose your own adventure!

well lookadat, i guess i did remember! definitely not as eloquent when composed in my head, but it'll do.

i'm headed to bed to stretch and read the not-so-sleeping-pill-afterall book. tomorrow i am making pickles! i can hardly wait! i don't know how many times i can think and actually say outloud 'life ain't nothing but a funny funny riddle' i think i may be going for the record!

birthday horoscope

from the ny post:

Make it a point of principle to change three small things on your birthday - and watch how those small things grow into big things over the coming 12 months. Change is good. Change is necessary. If you can, change something each and every day of your life.



i will do it! i am keeping the three things a secret. too bad for you dudes.

don't wish it away, don't look at it like its forever

alright alright, its time for me to write in here.
i will admit that twitter has sucked all my attention in the strangest way, but sometimes i don't have the energy for paragraphs. i apologize!

i went to france and ate all their sandwiches and then i came back to america.
tomorrow is my twenty-sixth birthday.

i feel weak and defeated, but don't worry, one of these days i will rise up singing.