It's 5:00 AM, Why am I Awake?

Anyone who ever spent a night at my little State St. apartment last year will remember its one major draw back: diesel. the Charlie's delivery truck would typically show up around 11:00 PM nightly; Chipotle on the other hand usually got early AM deliveries, sometime around 6:30 or 7:00. Then there were the deliveries for Wallgreen's, Fudrucker's, The City, and every other store down there that I never figured out the schedule for. And of course there were the 4, 6, and 82 buses which drove right outside my window from 5:00 AM to 3:00 AM, on a (pseudo-)half hour schedule. Anyway, the point is I very often slept with earplugs in in that apartment. I got so used to it that sometimes I'd wake up in the morning with them in and not even remember inserting them. Of course I had a bag of plugs for anyone who was staying over. (Interesting note: I saw the guy get shot on State St. last year because I couldn't find the earplugs I kept by my bed and had to get up to find more.)

Well, we do have a bus line that goes by our apartment this year, but I haven't used my plugs since mid-August sometime. None-the-less, they've been sitting faithfully by my bed for months. Tonight I wish I had remembered them. Starting around 11:00 the city began removing snow from Monroe St. Not plowing, removing. With large front-loaders. That beep whenever they back up. And run on diesel. Finally a little before 5:00 I grabbed my earplugs from the windowsill, warmed them in my fat little hands, and stuck them in. Unfortunately, it was too late for me. So I got up and wrote this blog.

Umm, ok, I guess.

So I guess I've committed myself to this pyramid scheme by commenting here. Which means gentle readers:

I hereby pledge to send a handmade gift to the first three people who comment on this entry. No real promises about time frame, but it’ll be within the next 365 days. In return, you have to post the same offer on your blog, and prepare to send a gift to three other people.

What you get may not be pretty (it won't), or useful (unlikely), but by god will it be interesting.

In conclusion, I have two concerns about this whole affair:
1. I'm only doing this because a) in considering the realm of handmade gifts I might get from Lucia I like my options (has she figured out how to make her own liquor yet?) and b) I was the first person to comment, so I felt like I was winning something.
2. doesn't doing this only because I have to nullify the whole pay-it-forward spirit anyway, sort of like mandatory volunteerism?

Sweatering In Blue

Sweater Thursday came as a surprise to me this morning. I woke up in a hurry because I had to finish grading my students' last homework of the semester and then get them entered online before my first section at 9:55. I would have finished this last night but Jobonga called me. And despite her claiming on numerous occasions that she didn't have anything else to say to me, we actually had a lot to talk about. Some highlights: Libertarians are disturbing, especially since they're usually well-off white kids from the suburbs; someecards has a card for every occasion, remember that next time you wish to express something/anything; I'm not a huge fan of christ, specifically if you list him as one of your interests on Facebook; Boston = New Year's '08.

Anyway, the point is I was in a rush this morning, what with entering grades and having to walk to school through 2 feet of (mostly shoveled) snow because the bus never runs on time. I ended up with this blue vee neck, which I like, but which has a few moth holes in it. In this picture, while home for lunch, I contemplate my next Scrabulous move.

Lazy Scrabble

Breakfast this morning was partaken at Lazy Jane's on Willy Street. Tommy drove Martin, Deji, and I over to Hippy-town, Brad wore a santa hat, and an impromptu Scrabble game broke out. You may take issue with some of the words played; UO is certainly not in the Official Scrabble Dictionary and neither is TROL. Whatever, it was only Breakfast-Scrabble.
Not After-Dinner-Scrabble. And we needed to keep things moving. More to the point, I'm currently addicted to Scrabulous. Specifically, the Facebook incarnation of Scrabulous. [If you don't know what this is, you should figure it out. And then start a game with me. I'll probably win, but you'll have a good time anyway.] I'm currently playing 6 games, one of them with my alternate Rochester personality, and have begun compulsively checking to see if it's my turn to play yet. And when it's not my turn I am compulsively planning my next move. It has sapped what little productivity I used to have when at the Hmong Lab. HMONG, by the way, is not a valid Scrabble word. SMAZE is though, being a combination of smoke and haze. I recently came upon that curiosity while trying to make MAZE into a 5 letter word. It worked, and scored me 75 points. Which just goes to show, no matter how much I complain about people using arcane Scrabble vocabulary like AA, ZA, WEND, or JO, I'm clearly not above using it for my own personal gain.

Sock Muppets

Today Rizzo and I had a quick photo shoot. I kicked him, and he loved it. Please disregard the boxers lying on the floor, I haven't really unpacked from Thanksgiving yet.

These socks were a game-time decision that I feel pretty good about. When Ansley arrived at 10:00 to take us to breakfast I was still in bed and still a little drunk. Luckily these brown argyles were right on top of the sock drawer. Sophisticated and stylish, just like me.

RE: who I want to sock today. I'm conflicted, but I've narrowed it down to two possibilities: either people who like going to The Cardinal, or myself for going with them. I hate that place. I expect Rosemblat will have something to say about this.



UPDATE:
Yes, this happened last night.

Winter Sweaters

Last week Sweater Thursday featured a beard, this week we are treated to a mustache. Specifically The Omega. In addition, it's snowed a lot here. Standford and I went "sledding" on the icy hill behind our apartment on Monday. Today I made a snow angel.



















I like how big my head hole is here.

Sock it to Me

Today's Saturday Socks is brought to you by American Consumers everywhere. Last Friday Darcy and I went shopping. The goal was to hit the hip, trendy, too-cool-for-school establishments sprouting up in the 6th Borough. As such we spent the day wandering around Northern Liberties, NoGo, Queens Village, and Rittenhouse Square. At the end of it, all I had was two pairs of socks. This is one of them. And I don't even know what animal that is on them. Do you?

more at twiigs.com...

Today I would like to sock Andy Hanson, as played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. Tommy and I went to see this tonight. We almost died several times because of the snow/sleet action going down in Madison right now, but it was worth it. And as a bonus we got to see Marisa Tomei's boobs, which I highly recommend. More to the point, Andy/Hoffman is a douche. He ruins his life, then ruins his family's, and then to top it off he ruins some peoples' lives who he doesn't even know. Oh, and you have see him doing the nasty with Marisa. Which I do not recommend.