…no one is invited.

NO ONE.

I went to Moe’s Books on Telegraph and well…spent a bit much. In addition to a Moleskine reporter’s notebook I got two books: Mississippi Sissy by Kevin Sessums, which I’m about 100 pages into already. It’s a great story about a young gay male growing up in the repressed South.

I also grabbed Winterwood, a kind of a noir novel in the snow. Looks good. We’ll see!

I also spotted two books that I am buying soon.

I’m getting back into reading a hell of a lot more. I have to or else I think my brain will go dumb. Oh, and Gracie recently fought a panda. AND WON.

Sometimes you have those moments where you realized that lead a great life. Here I am sitting on my couch, a new couch that I bought with my fantastic girlfriend after I moved in, while said girlfriend sleeps on the other side. The kitten, Gracie, is wandering around and my brother just left. Iron and Wine is soothing and calming me. I spent the day tooling around the East Bay with said brother, going to the Mecca of cycling (at least for us), making mixed drinks and in general having a great time.

Just thought I’d say hi, life is great.

Addendum: This is the drink of choice lately. It’s fantastic.

RECIPE: Whiskey Smash
SOURCE: Paul AllisonMAKES: 1 Serves
INGREDIENTS:
2 slices Lemon 2 - 3 leaves Mint 3/4 oz Simple Syrup 1 1/2 oz Whiskey
METHOD:
Muddle the lemon, mint, water and simply syrup in the bottom of a mixing glass. Add bourbon, shake, and strain into an old-fashioned glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with a sprig of mint, and serve.
BOOM!
optional: replace Whiskey w/ Vodka
It’s delicious, you can definitely up the liquor content and no one will ever notice.

I kind of enjoy the solitude of Saturday morning. I put on whatever silly-ass music I want to hear this early (I’ve been spinning the three Alkaline Trio songs from their split with Hot Water Music, best tracks ever) and just sit around. I might clean, do some house-y stuff but mostly I just relax.

I am indulging in some cider this morning. Lucy bought some Newton’s Folly Draft Cider from Trader Joe’s and I am enjoying it a lot. Most cider puts me off due to a poor sweet:alcoholic bitterness ratio. Thankfully this is one cider that gets it just right.

I just finished reading all of <a href=”http://www.fartparty.org/2006/12/22/how-to-make-a-million-dollars/”>the Fart Party</a> to be current. It’s quite the great comic, I have to say. It feels like a zine without the pretension and is based in this here Bay Area. Some comics actually made me feel a bit nostalgic for actually living in San Francisco. But the size:money ratio of my apartment and love for Gracie keeps me here. There’s that Lucy person and my job too. It’s a great read and even though she has relocated to NYC and thus her comic has too it’s pretty rad.

It has actually inspired me to attempt drawing of some sort. We’ll see how that disaster goes.

I need to get a damned haircut again. I remember when I had long hair…so few haircuts. So few dates.

I’ll be heading to the venerable ZIP! ZAP! hair to get my ears lowered. The modern “urban” boy has little choice than to pay for a 40 dollar haircut it seems. You are stuck with two (or three) options:

1. Supercuts, cheap cuts, crappy shitty cuts: They charge 10-20 bucks and cut the whole damned thing with clippers. They butcher the cuts around your ears and make you look like a 12 year old. BUT it’s hella cheap.
2. “Ethnic” barbers: I’ve tried them all; chinese, vietnamese, african-american, latino, italian and on and on. The list is never ending in my quest for a cheap, good haircut. In New Jersey I had my hair greased back by what can only be described as a “Guido” barber. I also had my sideburns and beard shaped into hilarious shapes by the Latino barbers in Atlantic city. The african-american shop down the street from my house did an Okay job recently but I think the barber was more nervous than me. The asian barbers just give me helmet hair and…yeah. I sound like a filthy racist but this kinda-nappy, curly as fuck, thick brown hair only happens on white mutts. Sorry.
3. Shi-Shi expensive places: These are the sweet spot, sadly. There are different levels of course, ranging from the reasonable like Transformer and ZipZAP! in the Lower Haight to the nigh-ridiculous like Festoon in Downtown SF and Berkeley and probably even higher but I get sick thinking about any more than that. It’s expensive and I’ve gotten ridiculous haircuts at these places before (Festoon and On Mars, I’m looking at you). The On Mars cut was particularly ridiculous, giving me hipster hairburns and a helmet on the top. Shit-tay. However Zip Zap, just a few blocks from my old apartment is the queen of cuts for me. My first seriously shearing there yielded a fantastic cut and I’ve been searching for a replacement ever since.

So what should the urban boy do? Look like an ass with money in his pocket? Get dirty looks and a questionable do as he walks where few crackers have gone before? Or should he shell out top dollar to look and feel good although he’s broke and wells up with self-loathing?

Well, in a few hours I’ll be 50 bucks poorer and filled up with the wonderful feeling of knowing that I am a Yuspy. A Young, Urban, Semi-Professional Yutz. How sad.

I had a four day week this week at work and yet I was still so tired I slept in an extra three hours this morning. I’ve been frustrated and just in the dumps lately, which I think makes me even more tired than normal. Sometimes, the reality of the world is just a bit too much to bear, when it comes to children and advantages that they may or may not receive.

Our school serves an odd cross-section of Oakland, drawing from Rockridge and North Oakland, the “old” and the “new” students respectively. Because of this the disparity between what the kids wear, eat and the help their parents can give is often so great its crushing. There are children with identical needs and symptoms but some can go to far more competent doctors, ending up with a dosage of medication that works the first time while others struggle with appointments, dosages, side-effects and absences. I don’t necessarily support the medicating of children, but in the past 5 months I’ve learned that last resorts often need to be turned to, more often than most of us would like. Without getting into specifics, there’s a chain of events in a person’s life that can determine the opportunities they have without any of their input. I’m seeing the results of the disparity and as an educator trying to mitigate what I can but it’s hard.

Topping this off is certain folks who are supposed to be helping who just aren’t doing their job. Incompetency is something I have trouble dealing with when you’re in a position that is supposed to helping those who simply cannot help themselves. It troubles me because you are not only failing at your job but you’re simply piling on top of a person who is already struggling against nearly insurmountable odds.

So that has me grumpy. My brother getting into graduate school is fucking rad, even though it means he’ll be leaving the Bay Area. Oakland to Ann Arbor sounds like a fun drive though, we’re thinking of making it the Lil’ Buddy’s final hurrah. I’ll drive him there and then drop off the LB in West Virginia, to live out the rest of his life up on blocks in the lower 40 at my parents’ house. We’ll see. Erin got a little Toyota Yaris that I haven’t seen yet. Those things are super cheap and super cute. I could do a car payment maybe…

Things are getting cramped in mine and Lucy’s apartment. I think sometimes we should move to a one bedroom instead of this studio even though it would be more moneys. I think it would make things easier, but she’s reticent. I think it might be because of the idea of a one-year lease and what that means relationship-wise but she won’t necessarily vocalize it that way. I think it might help some of the stresses that happen when two people (and a kitten) co-habitate in a space this size. We’ll see. It’s been a year and a month or so, which is baffling to me still. While things are up and down at times it still feels “right” to me. We’ll see how it goes.

My bike is pretty rad. I love riding to work and I think that the 7 miles I ride roundtrip every day are making me feel great. I need to go to the gym though. I had brunch with a good friend today and she was talking about how starting Krav Maga several years ago helped her eliminate weird feelings in herself. Maybe I should take some sort of aggressive class like that instead of focusing on weight lifting and my desire to take Yoga. I don’t think I’m necessarily someone who needs more getting in touch with my gentle side, perhaps I need to embrace more of my frustration and anger.

Anyways. The kitten and I are sitting here listening to Paul Baribeau bootlegs and in general just being “down.” I love days where I lose track of how long it’s been since I opened my mouth to speak. Silence is so enjoyable, especially when it’s my own.

This is approximately my ride in the morning. It’s a nice 3.5 mile guy that warms me up for a day of kids.

View Larger Map

While I’ve been opposed to these for a while this is pretty awesome. Time to start sewing.

A nice memory from their trip this year. I’ll visit soon!!

I got a call from a great friend today, really made the day shine. I realized that I hadn’t let “people” know what was up with me in a long time. So I decided to go the way of the obnoxious “mass email.” I got a few bounced email addresses, meaning I now have no way to ever contact some of these people again. They are, for all intents and purposes, lost to me. Weird.

This is what I said:

Just because I’m probably the worst person at keeping up with people, random and scattered updates on my life:

• I am now a Teaching Assistant for Kinder and 1st graders. It’s at a charter school in Oakland (www.noccs.org) and is probably the best job I’ve had so far. I started out as a P.E. teacher, which is hilarious and a good story if you’d like to hear.
• I am now living in Oakland with my ladyfriend Lucy. If you’d like to send Büntcakes or love letters, the new address is
  607 Beacon St
  Apt 6
  Oakland, CA 94610
  We have a kitten. it’s cute.
• That’s about it. I got hit by (another) car while riding my bike. I wear a helmet now. Graciously donated by a buddy of mine.

So yeah. Nothing really exciting. I built some houses last year with Habitat for Humanity but my bosses were big jerks. I like little kids a lot better. More hugs, more pan de la muertos.

Phone number is still NOT ON THE INTERNETS. I like phone calls, but will sound suspicious since I lost all my phone numbers recently. I love texts though.

-Justin

I want to go back to Ireland. Badly. I was just looking at pictures from my trip there and it’s where I want to be.

Wow, Saturday has been a real “man” day so far. I started out by dropping L off at work, which was a nice change from her dropping me off every single day lately. Then I took a break, a 2sie and a shower and headed out to get her muffler looked at. I kind of backed over something last night and she was freaked it may have really hurt the car. I figured the muffler had just gotten knocked loose, but was a bit worried. I took it to Midas in Berkeley and during their free inspection, they fixed the little rubber pad that holds it in place. Not a big deal at all. Phew.

Now I’m listening to Car Talk. Thankfully, I’m doing so via a laptop hooked up to a TV. Too much testosterone and this place would have exploded.

Cute. Deadly. Rolly. Polly.

Today on my ride home my handlebars were struck from behind as I neared the middle of the block separating 31st and 30th streets on Telegraph. As I went flying I thought “Christ, am I still dumb enough to bike without a helmet in a city?” and then as I skid down the asphalt for a few yards, I thought “Ouch.”

I got up, mostly unharmed - road rash and some skin missing, but mostly okay - grabbed my ride - it had become almost wedged under a parked car that I luckily avoided - and looked to see my would-be assailant begin driving off again. After (s)he had stopped. Fantastic.

I sat down on the curb, frustrated but honestly overjoyed to be alive at that very moment and some very nice people talked to me, told me what they saw happen and one named Al ran to get me some bandages and dressings.

Thankfully, people like that exist. So do people like my girlfriend and general amazing source of support, Lucy. She picked me up from Mama Buzz Café after I had started to walk home. She bandaged me up, cooked me dinner and I got the ice cream.

Hit and runs? With no license plates? It was a white car, probably mid-90s, a foreign build, perhaps a civic coupe of some sort. I don’t know. But good god, how much of a low-life do you have to be do something like this?

Sincerely-
Buying a helmet and some underarmor for skidding.

Today Lucy and I put up the curtains that we bought. They are awesome. Stockholm Blad from Ikea. I hate to say that I actually really enjoy that store but the stuff there is reasonably priced (generally) and of decent quality. It’s the H&M of furniture stores. Or maybe that’s backwards?

Anyways. We found them for half-off, so it was a no-brainer. We put them up today - I installed the hardware, she hemmed them up with the iron. It was nice. Gracie was hopping around everywhere. It was nice and normal. It felt like “getting ready” for something great. And now the place looks even better than it normally does. It’s a secret that I hate blinds with a passion. I will rid my life of them soon.

Now, she’s on the futon sleeping and I’m listening to All Hail West Texas and dorking around on the internet. (I also got the cheapest wireless router I could find this weekend.) We’ve got plans to see the Weakerthans on Wednesday and go to Santa Cruz next Saturday to see some friends. Nothington is playing on Tuesday, so it’ll be great to see Jay and Chris and Rich and hopefully Lalo too. Life is pretty great, honestly. I’m sad to be leaving the apartment Sean, Travis and I have shared for three years though. Almost to the day, actually. Weird.

I’m known to often be a bit too sentimental, sappy, etc. but I feel like things are really going well right now. I’m not going to dwell on the negatives for once. I’ll acknowledge them but I know that it’s not the end of the world to leave my friends and brother - after all it’s only just across the bridge. It sucks though that there has to be this physical space between where I work and where I lived. Otherwise, I doubt I would have moved. At least I definitely would have waited a bit longer, you know? But it just didn’t make sense to keep a $600/month storage space in San Francisco.

Oakland, here I am. Gimme something good.