Friday, August 29, 2014

I am a winner!

GOOD DAY,

Payment Notification Of Your Pending Funds.

I wish to notify you that your Winning / Inheritance Payment of $10.5
Million United States Dollars, Has been Approved and will be released
to you as soon as you respond to this letter, Also be inform that the
Federal Government of Nigeria have decided to wire your Payment
through our Oil Reserve Consolidated Account, You are ask to reply to
this Office with the reconfirmation of your information as below:

Your Name in full:
Your Telephone and fax number:
Your Age and Occupation:
Your Count Address: (1, 2, ha ha ha!)

Furthermore, as soon as I hear from you with the reconfirmation of
your information I will use it to obtain the Fund Approval Certificate
that will back up your fund to your Account, You are ask to stop any
Communication with any Office or person until you receive your fund.

Thanks and have a nice day, Extend my greetings to your family, I am
waiting to hear from you.

Best Regards,

Mr. Francis Johnson

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

A visit and a memory

Stopped by the library to pick up my reserve of the new Murakami book, one chapter in and all is well. While there, one of the clerks, who worked with my on Sundays at the Hilltop, asked my if I missed public service.

After I laughed for about five minutes I said no. I do miss seeing the new, more popular work instead of the more academic materials I do process these days but there is no way I would trade anything now. The last few years there were rough. I was profoundly unhappy and should not have been dealing with the public in any way. My leaving was good for everyone.

Ten years ago, this happened. Here's a Live Journal entry about a typical day in the life of the Hilltop. Yes, it's more than a bit cynical and a bit hateful. Such was my life in 2004.

"Had a train wreck of a customer. She had us print up a list of the books she had checked out. Then proceeded to say that she returned about half of them last night. I looked on the shelves for one of them, it wasn't there.

She then went out into her car, a few minutes later came back with a huge tub full of books - including the one she claimed to have returned in the book drop overnight.

I overheard her talking to my supervisor. She said she clearly remembered returning one book in particular. That the book was so big that she hurt her hand on the book drop door. My supervisor looked the book up and said, "This book is a small paperback that cost $2.99."

If there was any liquid in my mouth, there would have been a spit take.

God, that was funny.

After she did her business, she asked if she could leave the tub on the check-in counter. For some reason, we did. A few minutes later an elderly customer dropped her copy of the latest Evanovich right in the tub.

I've never seen my supervisor laugh so hard.

We moved the tub off the counter after that. About an hour later, the train wreck came back, and was looking for her tub. Luckily I told her we'd moved it before her panic would set in."

Monday, August 25, 2014

One day at a time, is all we do

My Stepfather came to town for an all too brief visit over the weekend. He brought a few of my old records with him, and an old case of 45's. Despite the short visit, we had a good time. We bought each other dinner (what, City Barbecue is also in Grove City?!?), took my son swimming in the pool of the hotel he stayed at. He really wanted to see the casino where he lost money while I had a free soda while watching Everton draw Arsenal on a very large screen. He's doing ok, as well as he can about the loss. His legs are not in great shape.

Still not sure when I'm going to be able to get east. Airfare remains permanently ridiculous and driving that distance with my son and his needs is difficult.

My son's sleeping remains very inconsistent. The melotonin is putting him to sleep a bit faster but he is not able to stay asleep through the night. Last night he was in bed at ten, then woke up around 12:30 and did not fall back asleep. I was so wiped out I called off work. I'm still wiped out. Somehow he got through school, but fell asleep about 4:30. We let him sleep about an hour. He was not happy being woken up for dinner.

May that hour of sleep he did get not process into four extra hours he can draw energy from.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

You will surprise

I am a positive and loving lady and I am looking for a gallant, intelligent man who is self-confident and firm of purpose.
I'm very charming, responsive, sociable and romantic.
I have good sense of humor.
I'm funny  and compassionate, I have good sense of humor.

I respect people and their personal freedom. I do believe that I would meet a reliable, loving and wise man with whom I share all the moments in my life!

Regards,
Vlada.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Sixth grade: day one

Sixth grade: day one

They do not tell you how many times your heart breaks
as you watch your child grow up
The pain of leaving him in a classroom he does not know
after being in a different school for seven years
The look of fright, a shock in his eyes you cannot erase
for his mind or your own
When you leave your son alone with a group of
peers and strangers for the first time
Knowing he will not tell you about any of it
at the end of the day
That he cut a circle with scissors
or some bigger kid, and they’re all bigger than him now
poured milk down his back
The silence at days end of five years of schooling
five years of rides on the short bus
twelve years of life
is insignificant compared to the swirl of everything
that happens in his head from minute to minute
No one knows what is coming to us
we can's live in fear, put him in a bubble
but we have to hope
dammit, that’s all we have some mornings
when he’s up at 2AM telling the ceiling
the script to an episode of Dora the Explorer
all I can say, with more sleep deprivation
than sense
is vamanos.

Saturday, August 16, 2014

The Tim Howard Effect

Today marked the official start of the English Premier League season. With MLS in full swing and the World Cup over the anticipation of the new year from abroad was high. My team, Everton, made a very bold and expensive move in signing a genuine permanent striker in Romalu Lukaku, who had been with Chelsea, but who played with Everton last season. Expectation are high for the Toffees, can they break into the lauded top four of the league?

When I walked into Fourth Street Bar and Grill this morning to watch the match with a crowd of people, I had no idea what to expect. There were already fans of Manchester United in barstools as they watched their team lose their match to Swansea. Their fans exited quickly after the final whistle and fans of the other matches began to show up.

There were a few dozen people in the bar at 10AM on a Saturday morning. Truth be known, mostly white men, but we were all trying to be awake, and were quite civil with each other.

In my six years of being a soccer fan, I have never seen a supporter of Sunderland in the flesh. Somehow, there were half a dozen Sunderland fans in Columbus. It was unreal. Also representing were Leicester, Aston Villa, West Ham, and Tottenham (along with the Columbus Crew). Quite a broad number of jerseys that were not the big four of English soccer. People were paying attention to all of the matches, even Hull vs. QPR.

As for the Everton support. At first it was myself and another guy. Which is not surprising. I've only met three people in town who are fans - a guy named Corey and a gal named Rebekah. It's usually Corey who is the only person showing support for Everton in a bar full of people. But then another person showed up, then two more, and another. All told there were eleven people who were there to see Everton, enough to field a team!

So we introduced ourselves, talked about the Ohio Toffees Twitter account, the availability of Kone and Orviedo, the injury to Barkley, which got a horrible update later in the day, and getting older Everton shirts.

The result was not what we wanted, a 2-2 draw with newly promoted Leicester, but we're hopeful for the season. It's only one match, and there are thirty seven more.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Cleaned out organ, clean bill of health

The worst part of getting a colonoscopy is the preparation. The items you have to ingest to clear the system, and in a competitive eating time frame, is rather vile. Plus having to ingest the last half of said items six hours before the procedure, which in my case was at three in the morning - is a rather taxing process. You can't eat anything solid either, and chicken bouillon cubes suck.

This, combined with my son waking up at two in the morning and not going back to sleep, made it all a very cranky time. The liquid melotonin works as erratically as my son's sleep patterns.

The people and staff at the OSU Medical Center were all very cool. From the volunteer who walked us to where we needed to be to the doctor who did the procedure, all professional.

I remember nothing about the procedure. I was on some seriously good drugs, if it was propofol, damn, I get why someone could get addicted to that. In the room I saw the screen, the wire they used wrapped up in sealed bags on the wall. Last thing I remember was them asking to take my glasses off and I said to not lose them. One of the nurses talked about my frames being cool, I told her to not look through them. She said she did not need glasses anymore. I asked if she had lasik surgery and that was it.

Not sure when I woke up in recovery, but my lovely wife was there. I was a bit woozy but do not think I said or did anything overly odd. I did ask several times if everything was alright. The doctor came in, said everything was ok and told me to come back in ten years. The nurse asked if I wanted to go and I said to give me about ten minutes, this is rare for me. I usually want out of a hospital room as soon as possible. She came back, and then I was ready to head out.

By this time I was quite hungry and bought a Hershey bar at the gift shop. Our ride came and we stopped at Rally's on the way home. Yes. Rally's. Did I say how hungry I was?

Got home and napped the rest of the afternoon, then found out about Robin Williams and here we are.


Monday, August 11, 2014

A less funny world tonight

Robin Williams died today of an apparent suicide at the age of 63. He could be a good actor in the right part, and he chose a lot of parts on both ends of the scale. He was always working, to pay the bills, maybe to keep the sadness from taking over.

As a comedian he was a direct descendant of the great Jonathan Winters. His skills at improvisation were unmatched. Sure, he went toward the easy dick joke too many times, but he was great at riffing a good dick joke.

Years ago, I met his brother Todd, who ran a winery. He died of heart disease a couple of years ago.

His onstage energy was amazing. His comic mind brilliant. It's a sad night as his passing is mourned.

This episode of The Actor's Studio had to be cut from a five hour taping. There are some moments of comic magic there. Magic that will no longer be created by Williams, but thankfully has been left for us.


Saturday, August 9, 2014

Sucky next 38 hours

After too many nights of interrupted sleep caused by my son not sleeping through the night we've decided to try something new. When he was much younger and had the same problem we tried melotonin and it had a reverse effect. This was at least eight or nine years ago. Tonight we slipped some liquid melotonin in with his pudding. Not sure what the results will be but he was not interested in drinking the milk we put it in last night - where he went to bed around 10PM and woke up about six, which for him is a good night.

So he's lying on the couch right now, which is normal for him. When he falls asleep and whether or not he sleeps through the night is now the question.

This was also one of those days I'm not sure if he understands what is happening. I drove him up to his new school and explained to him that he is going to be going here soon, that it is his new school and that it's going to be like his old one but different too. His response was to put his hands over his ears, which is a newer thing of his to do. We have a soon to be twelve year old surly teenager.

Not sure if my blood pressure is dropping the way my doctor would like. I'm on two medications for it now. Monday I'm undergoing a medical procedure which means I can't eat any solid food tomorrow and have to purge the system, as it were.

When my two older brothers hit fifty and develop cancer means I have to be vigilant, hence the procedure. Who knows when my genetic switch will activate?

In the time I took to write this, his eyes are closing, and he's out. Not sure if it's the melotonin or not.

Now if the idiots in my neighborhood would stop shooting off fireworks it can be even quieter around here.

Saturday, August 2, 2014

Boyhood reaction

"I wanted there to be more," Patricia Arquette's character says near the end of Boyhood. And after nearly three hours, to be honest, I would not have minded seeing more of this family's life. Richard Linklater filmed his characters over a period of twelve years to tell a rather ordinary story in a magnificent way, leaving the explosions and high drama out but keeping in the build up and wind downs of life's tensions. For the first, and possibly only time I will say that I wanted to see more of Ethan Hawke onscreen. Very good acting all around, and Arquette has some of her best onscreen work in her final scenes. You find yourself hoping the kids end up alright and wanting the parents to get something right and not screw up themselves or their kids. For the most part they do, but you see a lot of life's failures as well. "We're just winging it here," is Hawke's advice to his high school graduate son - and that one he gets right.