unSustainable
Jul/095
My current lifestyle is likely unsustainable. I’m so tired. I’m tired of the computer screen. I’m tired of working until 12:30am without anyone batting an eye. I’m tired of being on call 24-7. I’m clearly under paid and I suspect that raises this year will be a stab in the back. I was on a work-life balance kick for a while, which I will presumably regain after a couple more weeks, but it doesn’t seem to exist right now. I accept that this is the nature of things which is why I probably don’t get too outwardly frustrated. However, I do not like this at all. I enjoy a challenge but this challenge is not enjoyable.
I Dream When I Nap
Jul/093
Today I visited a pulmonologist to talk about my sleep behaviors. I suspect I’ve been get poor sleep quality which may have an effect on other aspects of my life.
An interesting question came up of “Do you dream when you nap?” I hardly hesitated and said yes, though after my initial statement I took a step back in my mind to try and remember if that were actually true. I was pretty sure but I couldn’t recall any especially vivid nap dreams.
Tonight I felt tired per usual and went upstairs to take short nap around 6:30pm. I awoke to a thunderstorm pouring down rain on my window about an hour later. I had been dreaming vividly at the time but I could tell you what it was about. I fell back asleep easily. I awoke 45 minutes later to the sound of my phone vibrating from a text message. This dream I clearly remember though it was all over the place.
—
It was a Saturday. I was in a variety of locations including Mahanoy City, PA, a state park, a hockey arena, a basketball camp that appeared to be Penn State though I’m quite positive it was crafted from a memory of summer camps at Moravian and finally a social center / ski retreat lodge.
I was riding a bike for a while down these strange enclosed elevated paths. I had some rubber balls in my hand and I threw one and it got in the way of someone. The floor was odd because there were these two young children riding in front of me and it kept looking like they were going to fall through these space in the floor. When I got to the end there was this spiral staircase but it was filled with people. I knew a few of the people and the sensation was that I knew them because I had seen them at other parks though they in retrospect they don’t standout as actual people I know in real life. I decided to turn around and ride back rather than waiting for them to clear the way.
The basketball camp was brief. I was running on an elevated track and there were about 4 courts down below and off to my left side. I remember seeing someone wearing a PSU basketball jersey. I spoke with someone when I got to the end of the walkway as I tried to find a way down. I think the person punched me in the face.
The retreat place morphed in at some point and I recall wandering around. The reason I even walked over to this section was that there was a TV on and I felt compelled to shut it off as there weren’t any other people around. The space was very expansive. I walked towards the sound and found myself in a bar/lounge area and there were people. I couldn’t quite find the TV. I remember picking up a glass and/or bottle of ketchup and later setting it down. Now that I think about it, it reminded me of a little diner thing in Las Vegas where we ate snacks and night several times.
The over arching portion of the dream was that I was doing some sort of work but also spending time was a friend. I remember seeing mygrandmother’s house and I can’t remember if went inside or not but I believe the plan was to sleep there. There was also this desire to go camping but I remember thinking about how cold it would be at night though it was clearly the summer. I was laying in a bed, and it was somehow in this giant hockey arena. The game was different though. The puck could be passed into a slot behind the goal and it would shoot out at the opposite end of the rink. I remember having a conversation with this person but I don’t recall the exact details. At one point I was laying on my back and the person was sitting on my chest. I remember struggling with them and trying to say that they were making it difficult to breathe. I tried to push them away.
—
The phone buzzed and I awoke.
Opening Pitch
Jul/093
Has anyone actually thrown a good opening pitch in the history of having famous people throw opening pitches at baseball games? Obama’s at the All-Star game wasn’t pretty but it was one of the better tosses I’ve ever seen. I just don’t understand why no one can throw a baseball. Sure, I’m biased as I played baseball for years and have developed some skills (though I did have 4 or 5 throwing errors in one game once) but it isn’t that hard to chuck a ball 60 feet 6 inches without looking completely unathletic. With baseball supposedly being America’s pasttime, I find it even more unaccaptable. Clean it up America.
It’ll Pass
Jul/090
This past weekend was filled with a great deal of activity. I’d say that I equally enjoy weekends doing not much of anything and doing a lot but given the fact that it is nice outside and summer and all it makes sense to take advantage of it all. I must give much props to Erin because she got to spend about 14 minutes at home between Friday morning and Sunday evening.
Friday night was spent down at Frawley Stadium in Wilmington to see Wilco and Conor Oberst opening for them. The last time they were in town I missed out on tickets so this time I bought 4 with the hopes of making a few bucks. I ended up getting $20 for the tickets from some random guy in what I thought was a last hope effort as we walked to the stadium. As we rounded the bend we saw a line of a hundred plus people waiting to buy tickets. I could have totally made my money back if I had been patient.
My ineffective sales tactics quickly faded as we listened to a rather loud Mystic Valley Band with 24 ounce Bud Lights, hot dogs and fries. The weather was wonderful and the concert layout of the staging being in mid-center field was interesting though quite functional. Wilco put on a great show and played songs from almost every one of their 8 albums. They didn’t go heavy on the new disc at all and they even played my favorite song “Misunderstood.” With 2 encores the show pushed well over 2 hours. It was a lot of fun.
On Saturday we headed up to central PA. After a quick stop at Weis Markets for camping snacks it was on to Kreamer. I don’t want to overplay the significance of “meeting the parents” but it is a important step in a relationship. We stopped at my parent’s house briefly and I think things went really well. That is a weird statement to make actually as I couldn’t really picture things going badly. We then headed over to Adam’s house to meet up for camping.
After a few quick stops to Cole’s Hardware, the beer store and Sheetz it was time to head up to the mountains. I believe we’ve been heading up to our spot for 7 years now and it has always been a good time. I can’t divulge too many details about our choice of location but I can say that the remote quality of it really makes it. Well, cellphones work there which goes to show that it is really hard to truly be remote any more.
I did get questioned on how we would handle the predicted thunderstorms. I said we’d figure it out / use my giant tent as shelter. I’m not going to try and describe what ensued. It rained a lot, the tent didn’t really work out for various reasons (e.g. putting the rain fly on backwards). However, I had fortunately planned ahead and had a large blue tarp which we strung between our two vehicles for shelter. We got very wet nonetheless but we drank beers, told stories and laughed a great deal. I can’t tell you how many times one of us exclaimed “it’ll pass.” It was the phrase that defined the trip. And it did pass and night was good. The joke of the morning as we headed out was how many days it would be before Erin dumped me because of what I had just put her through. She got an undiluted adventure/experience.
On Sunday I was so tired and ended up sleeping on my parent’s couch for a while. We did some more meet the parents time and had a really nice lunch that included fresh lettuce from my mom’s garden. I was quite pleased with the situation, conversation and everything frankly. I was reminded how lucky I am to have good parents.
As busy as the weekend was and as physically tired I felt, from a mental perspective I felt quite well. I can’t complain.
Slap and a Burrito
Jul/095
- I want to slap someone from the Miller Brewing Company in the face for having a commercial trying to make a point about Miller Lite being triple hop brewed. The average Miller Lite drinker doesn’t even know what the hell a hop is so why make up some technical process to tryand make it sound like the beer is some special craft brew simply based by the unique process used to brew it?
- If I were Frank Sinatra I’d come back from the grave to slap P Diddy in the face and more importantly the marketing person who got him to be part of the Ciroc vodka commercial where they play one of Frank’s most known songs.
- Goat cheese is a terrible cheese. It tastes like a farm. There is nothing wrong with farms or the smell of a farm, but cheese should not taste like that. Cheese should only taste delicious.
- For a Klondike bar I really wouldn’t do much. I’d take out the trash or maybe vacuum the carpet but that’s about all.
- I’m happy that the Democrats now have the majority in the Senate so that theoretically they could approve all sorts of crazy stuff. However, since it is government, they will probably totally waste the opportunity to do something good with the country.
- I’m so excited that the US and Russia have decided to reduce their nuclear stockpile such that we can only collaborate to blow up the earth 455 times over.
- There are actual criminals out there that steal airbags from cars. One of my readers can attest to that. I don’t even know what to say about it. I think any car maintenance place that buys stolen airbags should be exploded immediately.
- Boats that decide to float up the Delaware river around rush hour and force bridges to be opened which in turn causes traffic backups should all immediately be sunk.
- Some day I want to understand the secret of how Taco Bell can make a grilled chicken burrito for 89 cents.
- I think the FDA should go ahead and evaluate the thousands of herbal supplements out there and let us know what we already know about how they don’t actually do what the claim.
4th of July Break
Jul/090
This 4th of July break was particularly important for me. The magic date at work was July 6th for things to start picking up again. I really wanted to get a good deep breathe and a chance to lower the blood pressure as the next 5 months are going to be a long episode of me running up and down eastern North America.
- Thursday night I met up with Erin and her friends at Paddy Whacks for live band karaoke. I refrained from singing due to a soar throat (for real, sort of) but did enjoy the observations. I made a promise that next time I’ll give it a shot, and I will.
- I spent most of Friday napping and watching season 4 of The Wire. What a great series. I’m glad I don’t live in Baltimore.
- On Saturday I did some house things like laundry and general cleaning. I also went to Target. I got some random clothes items like t-shirts and a pair of totally DB sunglasses. The only problem is that I accidentally bought children’s size XL instead of men’s.
- Saturday night was a party at Erin’s. Thanks to many many block parties and the close proximity to the Ben Franklin parkway (music/fireworks) I spent 50 minutes trying to park my car. Then by my own mistake, had to walk 7 blocks with a tank of propane. A whole bunch of people showed up and it was a very festive atmosphere.
- We took a short walk down to the art museum to watch the fireworks. I must say they were quite impressive. The best part was how I took 215 pictures and ended up with about 6 ok shots. I was shown at least 1 point and shoot and 1 cellphone that were more impressive than my shots. However, I learned some good lessons and look forward until next year when I can try again.
- The night continued and so did the party. I played DJ for about 20 minutes and there was some serious dancing going on. From there, the flip cup picked up and the night continued on. It was a very enjoyable party.
- Sunday entailed some party cleanup which went quite fast. I was on broom duty and I think I did a fair job. In no time it looked like there was no party the night before. From there we took a visit to the Bishop’s Collar for brunch. I’ve never really been a fan of brunch until quite recently. Perhaps it was the beautiful weather, the beautiful female accompanying me or the Russian River Pliny the Elder on tap. In any case it was a very enjoyable meal.
- I really did get the opportunity to rest up over the course of the long weekend and I think it made a huge difference in my demeanor for Monday. Good times.
Roasted Red Pepper Pasta Sauce
Jul/091
Yesterday I was watching the Food Network and Bobby Flay mentioned an Italian sauce that is made by roasting red peppers and garlic as the base. That sounded like an interesting idea to me so I decided to make my own sauce with the same basic concept. I’ve made many variations on ragù in the past and while this is similar is is much more sauce like (though still quite chunky). The most interesting characteristic of this recipe is the spiciness. It really has a nice kick that hides the fact that I hardly added any salt to it.
Ingredients
1 package hot sausage
3/4 cup basil leaves
1 medium white onion
1 large green pepper
2 large red peppers
1/2 cup red wine (Shiraz)
1/8 cup red pepper flakes
1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/8 cup Italian hard cheese
12 medium stem tomatoes
8 ounces sliced white mushrooms
Directions
Slice the red peppers and place them on a baking pan. Peal the garlic and place that on the pan. Liberally coat everything in olive oil and bake at 350° for 25 minutes. In the meantime, saute the sausage. Drain the meat once cooked thoroughly. Slice the green pepper and onions. Add them to the meat over medium-low heat. Add the wine. Blend 10 of the tomatoes with 1/2 cup of basil, 1/8 cup of olive oil and the cheese until liquefied. Add this to the pan. When the red peppers and garlic are done throw them in the blender and liquefy. Add this to the pan. Slice the remaining 2 tomatoes into petite chunks and add. Add the red pepper flakes. Simmer the whole thing for about an hour. Towards the end of the simmer add the other 1/4 cup of basil. Serve over pasta and season with salt/grated cheese to taste.
2009 Beach Blast Soccer Tournament
Jul/090
This past weekend I went down to Wildwood, NJ to take part in the 2009 Beach Blast soccer tournament. This was my first trip ever to the Jersey shore. It was definitely an experience that text won’t do justice. It really was a blast. The weather was amazing. The people were fun. The soccer was exciting. The ocean was fun. Camping on the beach was cool even though you got sand in everything. Even if I didn’t get invited back next year, I’d seriously consider putting together a team as the experience was great.
I suppose I should explain what the whole deal was. So, the coed team I’m on split into a male and female team (along with a few additional folks). The format was a fairly short field with smaller goals and 4 field players plus a keeper. We played 3 games to try and qualify for the finals. I believe our scores were 8-3, 6-4 and 6-3. We made it into the finals but unfortunately lost 4-3 in a great match-up against some guys that supposedly went to Drexel. We definitely had a talented squad and I did my part (plenty of ESPN highlights). Being on sand was challenging though it made being a keeper even more fun as I could dive to my hearts content with little pain. The ladies team won their division for the 3rd straight year.
I’m not too disappointed that my parents never took me to the beach/shore as a child as it is crazy place.