Monday, October 01, 2007

phew

whew. interesting day. maybe today was one of the happiest days of the past nine months for me. no sure why. i didn't have ANYTHING to do all day long.. that is.. well, i hadda take my car into the shop (again). the transmission got replaced about 6 weeks ago and a couple of days ago it just pooped out again (i can't get it to rev past @40MPH). yeah so i am a little pissed about it, obviously. anyway i got up early and brought it to the transmission guys downtown, smashing the crap out of my driver's side window in the process ('cause i was impatient and irritable - hopefully that won't cost to much to replace! sigh). I dropped it off and caught a cab home, took the day off from work ('cause - how would i get there?) I checked online to see what was up with the train systems, apparently there was no way i could get in before noon unless i caught the metrolink downtown @8am (wouldn't be able to get to the transmission place in time though), same with bussing it straight down there. Tonight I did a little more research (for tomorrow, of course) and found that there's an Amtrak terminal downtown as well, if i catch the 9:40am then I can make it to Santa Ana, 5 miles from my office, at about 10:30am. Apparently the Amtrack runs a lot more frequently than the other train...! Wish I had known that today, and I wouldn't've burned a sick day. Anyway - guess the plan tomorrow is to get up @8, catch a cab to the subway (@ $5), get a lift on the subway to downtown (@ $2.50?), then transfer to Amtrak ($12) and then cab to work from there (probably @ another $6). It's funny, I probably spend about $15 on gas each day commuting to and from work, this isn't much more expensive - more of a hassle though, I guess. My girlfriend just moved into her apartment right near my office so I can crash there for a couple nights, supposedly, while my car gets repaired. The transmission si still under warranty, so hopefully this won't cost me AGAIN..... wish I didn't smash the mirror though. Damn it.

Uh yeah so today was nice. nothing to do, at all. It reminded me of the feeling of the last time I had "nothing to do, in my apartment" @ 6 months ago (doesn't feel so long ago, but then.. it does) the last time I was unemployed. Man, that crappy, crappy feeling. Do not want to jinx myself, of course, but hopefully that will be the last I have felt of that for awhile. At this point,I have been in and out of so may jobs without certainty about "where the hell I will end up next" and it's been numerous and recent enough that I will never completely let my guard down about when it'll happen again. not that I am always waiting for the floor to collapse out from under me, but I have yet to hit that honest-to-goodness "stable situation" where it's just not a concern, for real. Ha...

damn, you know what, i am hungry. it just struck me "i live near a supermarket, which is probably still open." I don't wana spend $15 to order a pizza so i think i will shell out a scant couple of bucks and buy a snack... 'cause.. HUNGRY. I know it is scintillating reading this, but..

NICE!! That was RAD. i just got up on a whim at 11pm in the evening and walked ot the Mayfair marekt and bought some CHEESE.

And some CRACKERS.

Ad it did't even cost me $9. And the crackers say they are fifty-percent of the fat of the normal ritz crackers, and though a bout half a buck more expensive, they are now "better tasting" than the previous iteration fo the low-fat crackers. let's see how they fare.
..
eh, good enough. Man. I realize as I type this, someday I will look back at it and marvel about how much I have lost my mind, to be transcribing a play-by-play of my intense adventures of buying cheese in the middle of the night. Don't think this is lost to me - I know that I have passed over some threshold of normalcy quite some time ago. yeah, well, what of it. This is my life, this is what I have become. I reflect on it rather often - Hollywood fucks with you, it really does. Depending on who you are, what you do for a living, where you've been and all of that.. living in a crazy mixed-up place like this will certainly scramble one's circuity but good, no matter the case. Unless of course you are an empty and boring individual, I suppose. I have proclaimed it before and I will repeat it again ad again, this place is a bunch of madness, any large urban environment like this in this day and age (or any, but certainly now in particular) is no exception.. It's okay. I don't lie to myself and pretend that it's not affected me somehow, after all of this.

My legs ache, owch. I am a big fan of walking, though I definitelydon't do it as often as I'd like. Unfortunately, the best workous occur when I am out of my mind, stumbling home from some bar or other (okay not really a stumbler, I am actually quit surefooted when i am toasted.. usually.. and fortunately). I decided to take a jaunt over to Griffith Park up the street yesterday, and when I got there, just kept on movin'. I saw the recently-reopened Observatory looming on the horizion, beckoning me.. "it sure is far! But not THAT far.." I made it that long, might as well see if I can make it the whole way. Damn! I have been walking for a half hour and I seem to be making some huge concentric circle around the damned thing, it's not got any closer at all!! Still I followed the winding path, eased on by the peace and quiet and serenity of the trip. Damn, damn i am getting tired a little, this walk back is gonna suuuUUuuckkk.. but how lame is it to say "yeah i walked CLOSE to the Observatory, but I pussed out after about 45 more minutes." how much longer could it be? Long story short (you wish!), I made it there, walked around the deck, then returned home, took me a couple of hours.. maybe about 5 miles or so for the whole trip, perhaps? It felt great, but yeah today it's a little painful to walk (not bad). And then I burned the roof of my mouth on hot french fries and chili. Don't tell my Diet. On that note, back to my cheese...

Yeah so tomorrow will be interesting. 11:30, I guess I'd better not stay up TOO too late, I have al maner of vehicles ot catch tomorrow morning. Kind of an experiment, but I am sorta F'd if I miss my train (the next one's not for about an hour and a half). i figure if I call the cab @8am and get on the subway by 8:30 I am all good to leave Union Station at 9:40. A little neurotic but I don't wanna blow it. It's kinda cool, in a way.. I like driving, obviously, but it's nice to change up the routine. I am a stranger to the subway out there, I've ridden it briefly a couple of times (it's mostly useless!) but when it has had a purpose it was cool, the few times.. heh heh. Mostly I am reminded of the days back in Boston, ten (ulp!) years ago, when a young Ron Alpert of barely 22 years old was working at his first Industry Job in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Carless and nearly broke anyway, I would catch the train from the suburbs all the way into the city. Then I moved to a very modest apartment in the town of Waltham on the outskirts on the city (not terribly close, but relatively much closer than living with my folks!) I would get up on the freezing mornings, walk 20 min to the bus stop, catch a 1hr bus trip into Central Square, ride the train from there to kendall Square, then walk another 15 minutes in the windy, blistering cold to my office building in cambridge. Then i got a car and drove to a closer bus station on the outskirts of cambridge, eventually moving to the city and having a much easier commute and just parking outside the damned building.

Anyway, yeah. Good times.

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