It's been a while since I've been here. We just got our internet connection established at the new place in Rochester. It's been quite a stressful week since moving in. The drive from PA took place with only minor complications. We had to stop 20 miles into the trip because both lights on the car trailer behind the truck had popped out and were dragging on the road, only holding on by a wire. Thanks to a friendly trucker and his duct tape, we were quickly back en route. At about Syracuse, the car being towed stopped flashing its hazards. The battery died, and needed to be jumped before we could get it off the trailer. Otherwise, the trip was pretty smooth. We unloaded the truck at lightning speed, but about halfway through Michaelene's mother called, saying that Michaelene's grandfather had passed away earlier in the day. It was tough to swallow. We'd seen him only a few days before at Thanksgiving. He had a cold, but ended up being admitted to the hospital that Friday.
We managed to finish all our unloading and to return the Uhaul by Tuesday morning, and on Wednesday we left for Michaelene's family in NJ. It was at the same time really painful and really comforting to be around everyone at the wake and the funeral. Everything was very nicely done, though. On a positive note, I got to meet the rest of Michaelene's extended family. They're all as crazy as the ones I'd already met. Good crazy, that is.
We made it back here Friday evening and finished our unpacking on the weekend. The apartment is coming together nicely. We're still getting used to things, where everything goes and how to get to different spots in town. Oscar, too, is getting used to things here. Today he learned about sliding glass doors. He found out that even though he can see what's on the other side, he can't run right through them. Poor little guy, he leapt from the ground over the 2 steps and hit the glass head on. He didn't seem hurt, but perhaps a bit ashamed. He required a little extra cuddle time on the floor after that one.
All in all, though, everything is going pretty smoothly with our move. Now, hopefully, we can find a job or 2.
Monday, December 06, 2004
Saturday, November 27, 2004
Lots of food and even more driving...
Well Thanksgiving was fun, as is any day when Michaelene's family gets together in large numbers. There was her grandmother and her 2 sisters, who are as different as 3 sisters can be. One is loud because she's always yelling, one is loud because she is so happy, and one is the quiet voice of reason. There was her brother, who at one point ran out to the garage, .22 in hand, set on killing the mice who'd gotten into his car. There was her two little cousins, 6 and 8, riding her brother around like a horse. There was her mother whose job was to stress out over making everything perfect. There was her father, whose job was to make sure everyone's wine glass was full (as a wise woman once told me, "There's always enough alcohol to make family tolerable.") There were the arguments about which traditions came from which country, accompanied by angry accusations that the Lithuanians stole everything from the Polish anyway. It was like a dinner show, Medieval Times-esque. When everyone finally left around 7 pm, the silence that filled the house was like an auditory massage.
On Friday we went to Michaelene's brother's new house in Hopatcong, NJ. We started the night eating dinner sitting on the floor and using a large trunk as a table. We finished the night eating dessert on a full living room set. In between, a quick trip to Wal-Mart turned into Michaelene's brother talking a furniture salesman into selling him an entire living room set for less than half price. It was really a thing of beauty, the way he haggled. On top of the clearance prices, he talked the guy down another $1000. And as impressive as that was, getting the couch through his door was even more impressive. It was an elaborate combination of tilting, twisting, turning, and shoving that finally got it in, and I'm not sure I could do it again.
Back at the ranch here in PA, we've got just about everything boxed up and ready to go. I can't even believe the amount of crap we've accumulated in just over a year. I'd have to say the highlight of our packing was when we took apart the dining room table. Being as unmechanically-inclined as we are...we decided it was best to take the legs off with the table standing up, instead of upside down. So Michaelene unscrewed them as I held the top of the table up in the air. How could we be so stupid, you ask? Who knows. It just goes to show that 5 years and $150,000 worth of college education can't buy common sense.
Ok, one more random piece of information. I just heard on the radio that David Lee Roth is training to become a paramedic. That's the most disturbing thing I've heard in a long time. And on that note...
On Friday we went to Michaelene's brother's new house in Hopatcong, NJ. We started the night eating dinner sitting on the floor and using a large trunk as a table. We finished the night eating dessert on a full living room set. In between, a quick trip to Wal-Mart turned into Michaelene's brother talking a furniture salesman into selling him an entire living room set for less than half price. It was really a thing of beauty, the way he haggled. On top of the clearance prices, he talked the guy down another $1000. And as impressive as that was, getting the couch through his door was even more impressive. It was an elaborate combination of tilting, twisting, turning, and shoving that finally got it in, and I'm not sure I could do it again.
Back at the ranch here in PA, we've got just about everything boxed up and ready to go. I can't even believe the amount of crap we've accumulated in just over a year. I'd have to say the highlight of our packing was when we took apart the dining room table. Being as unmechanically-inclined as we are...we decided it was best to take the legs off with the table standing up, instead of upside down. So Michaelene unscrewed them as I held the top of the table up in the air. How could we be so stupid, you ask? Who knows. It just goes to show that 5 years and $150,000 worth of college education can't buy common sense.
Ok, one more random piece of information. I just heard on the radio that David Lee Roth is training to become a paramedic. That's the most disturbing thing I've heard in a long time. And on that note...
Thursday, November 25, 2004
Last day at work
Yesterday was my last day at work here in PA. My head was filled with mixed emotions: excited to be one step closer to Rochester, sad about leaving some great people in PT, admittedly a bit nervous about not having a job or health insurance yet. I'm so bad at goodbyes. I'm always incredibly awkward and feel like I never say or do the right things. And yesterday being the last workday before a holiday, everyone was rushing to get out as soon as possible. So I didn't get to say goodbye to some of the people I'd wanted to see. Some people I kept running into, though, and said goodbye several times to them. Does that mean it evens out? Probably not. There are a couple of the PT's with family in Rochester, who I'll hopefully get to see when they come for a visit.
I finally left around 4:00, having to stop home before my final guitar lesson with Eric at 5:00. I only live 3 miles from work, which is usually an 8 minute drive. But of course, with my luck, I got stuck behind 2 trains on the way home, and it ended up taking over a half hour. The first train just passed through. The second one came by, stopped at the station, went in reverse to switch tracks, pulled forward again, then repeated the maneuver. Unfortunately trains take a bit longer than a car doing a 3-point turn. I am usually able to suppress my roadrage, but I did find myself yelling at the #*@&! train. So I got home at 4:30, still enough time to drive the mile-and-a-half to my guitar lesson at 5:00...or so I thought. Here's the problem with Harrisburg's roads. There's only one main road going in each different direction. And when there's an accident on one of them (which there is just about every day), the re-directed traffic backs up for miles. So yesterday morning, before 6:00, there was an accident involving a propane truck on I-83. At 5:00 pm they were still working on cleaning up, and traffic was backed up everywhere. When I left for my guitar lesson, it ended up taking me 45 minutes to go about a mile. I turned around at 5:30, when my lesson was supposed to finish. That was one person I'd really wanted to see one more time before leaving, but now I won't be able to. Damn you PA! Just let me leave as I want to!
Getting back home around 6:00, we finally left for Michaelene's parents in NJ. This proved to be yet another source of frustration. An hour later, we'd only made it 20 miles. Once away from Harrisburg, though, it was fine. Symbolically so, everything was good once we got away. And so one of the worst travel days of the year was made exponentially worse by living in Central PA. Starting with my drive home from work, I essentially spent over 6 hours in the car, instead of just 3. Ugh...
So now we're finally here for Thanksgiving. It's always interesting when this family gathers in large numbers. This should be fun.
I finally left around 4:00, having to stop home before my final guitar lesson with Eric at 5:00. I only live 3 miles from work, which is usually an 8 minute drive. But of course, with my luck, I got stuck behind 2 trains on the way home, and it ended up taking over a half hour. The first train just passed through. The second one came by, stopped at the station, went in reverse to switch tracks, pulled forward again, then repeated the maneuver. Unfortunately trains take a bit longer than a car doing a 3-point turn. I am usually able to suppress my roadrage, but I did find myself yelling at the #*@&! train. So I got home at 4:30, still enough time to drive the mile-and-a-half to my guitar lesson at 5:00...or so I thought. Here's the problem with Harrisburg's roads. There's only one main road going in each different direction. And when there's an accident on one of them (which there is just about every day), the re-directed traffic backs up for miles. So yesterday morning, before 6:00, there was an accident involving a propane truck on I-83. At 5:00 pm they were still working on cleaning up, and traffic was backed up everywhere. When I left for my guitar lesson, it ended up taking me 45 minutes to go about a mile. I turned around at 5:30, when my lesson was supposed to finish. That was one person I'd really wanted to see one more time before leaving, but now I won't be able to. Damn you PA! Just let me leave as I want to!
Getting back home around 6:00, we finally left for Michaelene's parents in NJ. This proved to be yet another source of frustration. An hour later, we'd only made it 20 miles. Once away from Harrisburg, though, it was fine. Symbolically so, everything was good once we got away. And so one of the worst travel days of the year was made exponentially worse by living in Central PA. Starting with my drive home from work, I essentially spent over 6 hours in the car, instead of just 3. Ugh...
So now we're finally here for Thanksgiving. It's always interesting when this family gathers in large numbers. This should be fun.
Sunday, November 21, 2004
C'mon Mom, hurry up and take the stupid picture!
With a lack of anything interesting or thought-provoking to write about, here's the most recent picture of Oscar I have. He fully enjoyed playing in all the fallen leaves during our recent trip to Michaelene's parents' house in NJ.
Saturday, November 20, 2004
Moving is no fun
So we're moving in about a week to Rochester. I'm slowly realizing how much more I hate packing up a whole apartment, as opposed to just the college dorm room. We've been going at it for about a week off and on now. Oscar has been helping by licking the boxes as I put things into them. There's just so much crap to go through. The living room floor is covered in boxes and a collection of things waiting to be put in boxes. We left about 50 lbs. of clothes at Goodwill. I'm finding things from college that I had to hang on to, that haven't been touched in over a year. We're keeping the garbage men in shape. Ugh...
I just keep telling myself that once we get moved in up there it'll all be worth it. Our new place is a 3-story townhouse with a finished basement. It's nicer (and bigger) than where we are now in Pennsyltucky. It's not as much of a retirement community as this place either. I'm excited to be moved in, just not to do the moving. Michaelene's parents are helping us move out, but I have the feeling that we're pretty much on our own to do the unloading once we're up there. So if anyone in Rochester is free Monday, November 29, let me know.
I can't wait to get back to Rochester. I never knew how much I'd miss it. It feels much more like home to me than here in Central PA. It really feels like I live in part of the Bible Belt sometimes. Penn State, NASCAR, the Eagles, church groups, and how wonderful President Bush is are the most common topics of discussion around here. I hate feeling like I can't be part of any conversation without people thinking I'm some sort of weirdo. It's not that I have to be surrounded by people that think and act just like me all the time. That would drive me crazy. But every once in a while I'd like to have someone to agree with.
Other than a select few of the people here, what I think I'll miss the most about PA are my guitar lessons with Eric. I've been taking lessons from him for almost a year and I can really see a world of difference in my playing. It's still a goal of mine to get into a band to play the local bar scene. Hopefully in Rochester I can hook up with someone who's patient enough to want to play with me. Until then, I'll be headlining in my bedroom.
I just keep telling myself that once we get moved in up there it'll all be worth it. Our new place is a 3-story townhouse with a finished basement. It's nicer (and bigger) than where we are now in Pennsyltucky. It's not as much of a retirement community as this place either. I'm excited to be moved in, just not to do the moving. Michaelene's parents are helping us move out, but I have the feeling that we're pretty much on our own to do the unloading once we're up there. So if anyone in Rochester is free Monday, November 29, let me know.
I can't wait to get back to Rochester. I never knew how much I'd miss it. It feels much more like home to me than here in Central PA. It really feels like I live in part of the Bible Belt sometimes. Penn State, NASCAR, the Eagles, church groups, and how wonderful President Bush is are the most common topics of discussion around here. I hate feeling like I can't be part of any conversation without people thinking I'm some sort of weirdo. It's not that I have to be surrounded by people that think and act just like me all the time. That would drive me crazy. But every once in a while I'd like to have someone to agree with.
Other than a select few of the people here, what I think I'll miss the most about PA are my guitar lessons with Eric. I've been taking lessons from him for almost a year and I can really see a world of difference in my playing. It's still a goal of mine to get into a band to play the local bar scene. Hopefully in Rochester I can hook up with someone who's patient enough to want to play with me. Until then, I'll be headlining in my bedroom.
Friday, November 19, 2004
# 1
Hi, I'm Adam. This is my blog.
I've been considering keeping an online journal for a few months now. So, being the hop-on-the-bandwagon kind of person that I am (riiiiight), when Jim started his blog a couple weeks ago (http://jtourville.blogspot.com/) the motivation came to me to start mine. Not that anything happening in my life is nearly as important to share as what's going on in yours, Jim. But here it is anyway. Even if no one else ever reads this, I think it'll be somewhat cathartic for me to write it. And so, for my first post, here are the song lyrics for which this site is named:
In My Tree
from Pearl Jam's No Code
Up here in my tree. Yeah.
Newspapers matter not to me. Yeah.
No, no more crowbars to my head. Yeah.
I'm trading stories with the leaves instead. Yeah.
I wave to all my friends. Yeah.
They don't seem to notice me. No.
Ah, their eyes strait on the street. Yo! Oh...
Sidewalks cigarettes and seams. Yeah. Yeah...
Up here so high I start to shake.
Up here so high the sky I scrape.
I'm so high I hold just one breath deep within my chest just like innocence.
(Eddie's down in his home)
(Oh, the blue sky it's his home)
(Eddie's blue sky home)
(Oh, the blue sky it's his home)
I remember when, yeah
I swore I knew everything. Oh, yeah.
They say knowledge is a tree. Yeah.
It's growing up just like me. Yeah.
I'm so light the wind me shakes.
I'm so high the sky I scrape.
Yea, I'm so high I hold just one breath, to go back to my nest, to sleep with innocence.
Up here so high the boughs they break.
Up here so high the sky I scrape.
And my eyes feel both wide open.
And I got a glimpse of my inner sense.
Got back my innocence. Still got it. Still got it.
I've been considering keeping an online journal for a few months now. So, being the hop-on-the-bandwagon kind of person that I am (riiiiight), when Jim started his blog a couple weeks ago (http://jtourville.blogspot.com/) the motivation came to me to start mine. Not that anything happening in my life is nearly as important to share as what's going on in yours, Jim. But here it is anyway. Even if no one else ever reads this, I think it'll be somewhat cathartic for me to write it. And so, for my first post, here are the song lyrics for which this site is named:
In My Tree
from Pearl Jam's No Code
Up here in my tree. Yeah.
Newspapers matter not to me. Yeah.
No, no more crowbars to my head. Yeah.
I'm trading stories with the leaves instead. Yeah.
I wave to all my friends. Yeah.
They don't seem to notice me. No.
Ah, their eyes strait on the street. Yo! Oh...
Sidewalks cigarettes and seams. Yeah. Yeah...
Up here so high I start to shake.
Up here so high the sky I scrape.
I'm so high I hold just one breath deep within my chest just like innocence.
(Eddie's down in his home)
(Oh, the blue sky it's his home)
(Eddie's blue sky home)
(Oh, the blue sky it's his home)
I remember when, yeah
I swore I knew everything. Oh, yeah.
They say knowledge is a tree. Yeah.
It's growing up just like me. Yeah.
I'm so light the wind me shakes.
I'm so high the sky I scrape.
Yea, I'm so high I hold just one breath, to go back to my nest, to sleep with innocence.
Up here so high the boughs they break.
Up here so high the sky I scrape.
And my eyes feel both wide open.
And I got a glimpse of my inner sense.
Got back my innocence. Still got it. Still got it.
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