Michigan

Right now I am chillin at the Leelanau Coffee Roasting Company, using and abusing their wi-fi connection in the heart of Leelanau County in Northern Michigan. I have been up here since Sunday afternoon, and tomorrow at the break of dawn we start our 13 hour journey back to Kansas City, hopefully arriving around 9 pm. It has been a rather interesting week, we met up with some old friends that used to vacation with us up here at a resort that is now destroyed so that a multi-millionaire can build a summer home. Such is capitalism.

We are in Glen Arbor:


I have been doing a lot of beach chilling, reading (finished Devil in the White City and started Anna Karenina), and bike riding. I have done a loop twice now with is about 30 miles long, and goes through this very hilly National Park called Pierce Stocking. There are some insane climbs, and I have climbed them all successfully.

Tom, get ready because when we get back to Manhattan, I'm coming for you.

However, I am officially sick of being with my family and I cannot wait to get back to school. When you think about it, I haven't really had things 'back to normal' since December, and I am longing for my freedom back and the chance to get back into a routine.

Kerouac: Conservative, Lawyer style

Yesterday I embarked on a 'road trip' of sorts with my family to a destination of northern Michigan. I am currently staying at a Holiday Inn in Holland, Michigan. Just down the street is a fantastic outlet mall, fashioned after the American stereotype of Dutch architecture; ie bright orange roofs made of plastic, but 'designed' to look like tiles, and walls made to look like post and lintel construction using timber with white plaster infill; sort of a Dutch meets German fusion, but hell, people in Michigan don't know much difference. I'll try and get pics of it tomorrow.

Today we drove from my grandpa's house in Columbia, Missouri and went out to dinner at a restaurant with good food, but a style of early 90's decadence. You know, fake grapes and vineyard branches, sponge painted walls, bright colors, etc. Funny enough, the customers were dressed with a similar style of tackiness. That's what you get when you let Marty pick the restaurant.

On the road today I tried to get my family to stop for lunch at a trucker diner, to experience the life of being on the road constantly, but no, we had to stop at Wendy's, of all places. I had a Spicy Chicken Sandwich with a Coke. Also, I tried to get my brother, who was driving at the time, to put the car on cruise, and then we could switch seats mid-road, but he would have none of it. My family isn't very adventurous; hopefully this week will be a bit more exciting.

The South will rise again!!!

...well, some people think so anyways.



Yesterday I went to a band concert in Roanoke, Missouri, the town that my grandpa and grandma grew up in. My grandma is no longer with us, and since is was the 99th year that the concert was taking place, I figured that I should go. I had a good time, it was good to spend some time with my grandpa. Below are some pics.

My grandpa attempting to eat a delicious burnt sugar cake:


Roanoke used to have over 100 residents; now it has about 10 and most houses that are still standing look like this:


My sister looking at my grandma's gravestone:


And here's a pic of my 'new' apartment in Manhattan:

Workin man

Today was my second day in a row off, the first time that this has happened since I've been back. For once it actually felt like a weekend[irony b/c it's midweek]; yesterday I was in Manhattan moving all of my stuff. My sister and mom came down, and it was quite interesting to move with them. We got into town around noon and hit up Belly's from some delicious grub. We sat at the front table right by the door which gave me a more than adequate seat with which to reabsorb my second[studio=1] home in Manhattan. Then we went and picked up a 14' truck from U-Haul, which I proceeded to drive to my place out by the golf course; of course this was down with a backwards cap, windows down, and hard rock blasting on the radio. When we reached my place, we all went inside to start packing, with one little problem: I forgot to bring any boxes. What we did to accomodate was to find any box, container and bag, and shoved it full of all of my stuff, and this is when I came to a very important realization that I have too much shit. So, after I get around to unpacking the big pile of stuff on the floor of my new place, I will be lightening my load[s] substantially. We got everything moved without much of a hassle, and then headed home.

Between now and next Thursday, I only have one day off, and that is Saturday. I was going to have to work then too, but I got it off as there is a band supper at my grandpa's home town of Roanoke, Missouri. It has been an ongoing tradition for many, many years, and now that the town is basically all but gone, I feel that I should go there with my grandpa because it has always meant so much to him. He is the person in my life that I respect the most, I know that our time together is growing short since he is almost 86 years old. I am looking forward to the supper and hopefully can snap some pics.

canufeelthe BEAT

So I have stopped reading Kerouac's Visions of Cody because it is boring. There is no plot, and it is just pages after pages of one run on sentance. It is basically a character study of Neil Cassidy, one of Kerouac's good friends and is not really moving anywhere in a hurry. I know that is his[Kerouac] style, but it is quite difficult to read the book and I don't really feel like having it take the rest of my summer to read. I will get around to it eventually, I just want to get to some other stuff.

My dad[conservative] has been criticizing Kerouac and the Beat authors as just being trash, yet he has never read any of their work. I have tried to get him to read On the Road, but he will not do it. He gave me a book called, The Long March: How the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s Changed America, which is basically a left-wing criticism of the right-wing counterculture from the Beats all the way up. It's interesting, I just don't agree with a lot of it. One of the reasons that I am reading it[besides b/c I want to see BOTH sides of the debate] is so that I can tell my dad that since I read his book, he has to read my book. Think it will work? I'm optimistic.

Tuesday I am going to Manhattan[little apple] to move all of my stuff to my new apartment for good[finally]. Then, Wedel can have my key[also gives me an excuse to go to Lawrence]. I will also be applying for a job at Radinas[coffeeshop].

curious thought of the day: I wonder if in the future[near/far?] people will discontinue to hang out with friends in reality and just socialize via facebook[online]? Think about it[scary], never actually going to a party or firends, just hopping on your computer[apple!] and typing something on your friends wall[OMG!!! UR sooo CUTE!!!!! luv u 4evr!!].

Change of pace

Well, I woke up early this morning and went on a bike ride, and it felt really good. I feel like I have been letting that slide the past week or so, and therefore I have decided that I am not going to drink anymore for the rest of the summer; it also costs too much money (for now) and I think that a summer without it will be good. I always like to prove to myself that I can do something, and this is no exception. So, tomorrow is my day off from work and I am going to get up again and do another bike ride, and then give my car some lovin'.

Don't know if I mentioned this or not, but the other day I tried to lower the back of my car and one of the coils had seized, so until I get enough money to buy a new one I am going to be driving around with some not-so lovely wheel gap. Ahh, such is life.

Lost in re-adaptation

Well, I thought that things were back to normal, but I was wrong. I guess it takes a little longer to readapt to being home that I thought. It isn't really any one specific event that has caused me to believe this, just a combination of small ones. Things that used to not annoy me as much (having to sit endlessly in traffic), now irritate me beyone all means. When I see the trophy wife crowd, both current and future, I am no longer excited by their looks but am now rather disgusted by their ignorance about life. I feel like I have changed, but the world around me has not, and this makes me feel akward. I have come back to a place and a life that was once me but now is not. Will I gradually filter back in, or will I feel like this forever?

The funny thing is, people in Europe are just like the people over here, they just have slightly different cultures. You had your jocks, your preps, your skaters and your nerds over there, they just dressed and talked differently. So if is all the same, then what has made me change?

Ah well, enough musing, I have to wake up early tomorrow to go on a bike ride.

OC

Well, I just finished the first season of the OC, and my was it intense. All you naysayers, don't knock it until you try it. My sister said that the second season comes out on DVD later this summer, and she's trying to get my to go in 50/50 on it, but if I do that, then everyone will know that I am actually interested in it and I won't be able to use the line that I just innocently borrowed it from my sister. Oops, too late.

I did however get a new pair of kicks in the mail today, an American classic known as the Jack Purcell - white on white of course. I plan to be rockin these sockless all summer long.

London Bombings

My mom woke me up this morning to tell me of the terrorist attacks in London. So far there are about 45 dead and over a thousand injured. My first reaction was one of shock, followed very closely by feelings of anger towards the people who did this. I know realize that while significant, this is not near the level of 9/11, and while it is important to help and be concerned about people, life must go on. People in London are still working and going about their business, and that is what they need to be doing. Terrorists must not be allowed to think that they are getting anything accomplished by their cowardly actions, and I know the resolve of Londoners; this will not sway them.

I have emailed several of my friends, but have not gotten any replies back. One of my dad's law partners, a guy who lives and works in London and whom I had lunch with several times, was located very near the blasts and I got an auto reply stating that he will be out of the office until Monday, so I know that he is at least alive.

seventeen

read 6-30 and 7-2. shake, don't stir. wal-la.

dirty|little|secret

Ok, I will admit it...I have become hooked on the OC. My sister bought the first season on DVD yesterday and I watched a few episodes with her while she was lying in bed after surgery on her gums and I have become hooked on it. I just watched 4 episodes of it after work and it is now 3 am. Go ahead, poke fun, make jokes, I don't care, I will now freely admit it.

Don't know if it is too early for this or not:

http://www.uwec.edu/counsel/pubs/TwelveStepsOfAA.htm

Lost in Translation

So after work tonight I hit up Blockbuster and rented Sophia Coppola's recent film, Lost in Translation, and 'wow!' was I blown away. It was such a poignant and truthful film that I am tempted to watch it again, even though it is already 1:30. I cannot remember the last time I saw a movie that had me so deep within it's grip. The script was fantastic, the relationship between Johansson and Murray was so tragic and even though I knew what the eventual outcome would be, I still kept on hoping that it would not end how it did. And the cinematography was top notch as well, I loved Coppola's minimal yet effective use of camera angles. She managed to capture the emotion of the characters in a rather untraditional way through the use of the screen, not the dialogue between the characters. Beautiful.

Johnson County

Used to be one of the rotten ones and I liked you for that

Now you're all gone, got your make up on and you're not coming back [can't you come back?]
Bleachin your teeth, similing flash, talking trash under your breath [under my window]

Park that car, drop that phone, sleep on the floor, dream about me

(courtesy of broken social scene)

...

Well, I've been posting daily, so I guess I will continue. Worked this morning from 10:30-5 and then went in a ride later in the day. It was really hot outside and I almost overheated several times, but I got through the ride. I did however get a cramp in my calf at the beginning of the ride that hampered me all ride long.

A new release of iTunes came out this week, and it now includes podcasting, which is a pretty cool feature. Basically, podcasting is when people create .mp3 files and do a sort of audioblog. Just goes to show how intregration is occuring.

Bad Day

This morning I was awaken at 8 am by the evil roofers going to town on our roof...RIGHT ABOVE MY BED!!! It wasn't cool at all. I knew that it was going to be a rough day from here on out.

I went to the pool to catch some rays and do some relaxin and reading of my most current read, Visions of Cody by my main man Jack Kerouac. I was there for about an hour and a half before I realized how sunburned I was getting. I now have a very red and very sensitive stomach, back, chest and legs.

After the pool (it's obviously my day off...yay!), I went to work on lowering my car to my desired ride height. Well, as one could imagine, the 5 months of sitting and lack of washing did a number on my coilovers, causing them to rust and bind. It took me several hours and half a bottle of WD-40 to get the fronts down to the optimum ride height, but I could not budge the rears, as they are too rusty. So, I am rolling around muscle car style with some massive rake going on (that's low in the front, high in the rear). Here are some pics of the current setup:





So, now I'm going to roll around all goofy looking for a bit until I can get some more energy to work on the rears and hopefully get things unbinded back there. Good luck to me.

To Thomas

Tom, I found a pretty badass pchop I did of you while I was in London, let me know if you can place where it was taken:

I'm So Emo!!!!

Har Har Har.

So I was getting bored so I decided to dye my hair. It is now black. There isn't that big of a difference from before, as my hair was pretty dark to begin with, but here's how it sits now:



Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go cry in a corner about how much my life sucks. Oh wait, I'm in school, my parents help me with money if I need it, I've got lots of good friends, and I just spent a fantastic semester in London, my life doesn't suck!!! Oh woe is me, whatever will I lament about now?...

We are spirits in a material world...

Is it possible to live a life completely devoid of hypocracy, or are we destined to continue our existence swimming in an ironic pool of it?

Today my new iPod case arrived in the mail, I think it's pretty s-e-x-x-y.



It's made by www.contourdesign.com and is both durable and elegant; I would highly recommend one.

Dinner!!

Finally got to eat my Gates BBQ, a nice short end of delicious ribs!!!!!


mmmmmmmmm!!

She's got a ticket to ride

I started my 'training' today. On the 29th of July my family is going up to Michigan for a reunion with several other families that we used to meet up with for a week every summer. There are some fantastic roads to ride your bike on up there, and there is one ride in particular in an area called Pierce Stocking which is quite brutal. I have done it once before and was quite knackered after I did it. I have been wanting to get myself back into shape, and now I have got 5 weeks of intensive riding so that I will be in shape for when we go up there. I am using this ride for my inital motivation to get myself into shape, and I am hoping that once I get into shape for my week in Michigan that I will be enjoying it enough that I will stick with it.

Tomorrow is another day off for me before working Thursday-Sunday. It looks like I am going to be averaging 35ish hours a week, which is the most that I have ever worked for Starbucks. It's fine with me, no matter how much I may complain about it, because I do need the money.

I've been meaning to post this pic, but I have been too lazy to upload it until now; so, here's my new euro-haircut!!