The Record

Recently I've been listening to Beach Blvd and Fear's The Record and talk about misheard lyrics...

The tape was made by me via my ex-college roommate Nathan Kendig and though the Beach Blvd has a track listing, the Fear one doesn't. So I never really paid attention to most of Fear's lyrics aside "Let's Have a War," "Fuck Christmas," and two or three other ones, though I love every song on the album. But upon listening, sort of, to track two, I thought the song was called "Police Brutality," which from a Southern California hardcore punk band from the early 80's, wasn't that far off an assumption.

But then I started paying attention to the lyrics and noticed in the verses he says, "She don't like" something and start thinking of how a she turns into police or something. I just looked up the lyrics and here they are:

She don't like fashions, she don't like phonies
She don't like junkies, she don't like druggies
She just wants my beef baloney

Beef, beef, beef, beef balogna

She don't like salami, she don't want pastrami
She don't want a chicken, she don't want a roast
She just wants her double dose of my

Beef, beef, beef, beef balogna

I should say at this point, that I think the fucking Simpletones are aces!

A New Cat

One of the cats we're taking with us has been sleeping with us for the past...since we've moved in. The other night, though, the mother-in-law closed the back door with the flappy door thing because the neighbor cat who always comes in has been hanging on the table which is now full of her valubles that are being packed or sold. So she closed the back door which our cat loves to use.

He wanted me to let him out the front (which he always does) but since I was going downstairs I didn't because it would be cold out and the back is closed so he can't come in and he'd freeze. So all night he was pissed and running around our room and doing all this shit.

The next night he slept upstairs with the mother-in-law.

Today, Jeanne and I were leaving and he was outside and as I closed the door, he darted in and at just the time I was shutting it and he went face first into the door and turned and ran.

When I came home later, he was hanging in a space between these plants. I went to pet him and he ran away. Later, he wouldn't let me pet him. I just went upstairs and he's sleeping on the mat with the other cat we're taking and he never sleeps there.

Please Abby, what should we do?

Here We Go Again.

So I am out of a job. I loved this job. It was exactly what I was looking for. On top of the job being awesome, the co-workers were as well. You know how sometimes it takes a while to fit in or you feel sort of awkward for a bit? This place I fell right in and loved everyone.

From the get-go I was told that the owner was incompetent and he just wants to run the place down and get money on foreclosing. I pushed all that aside as I am not one to go by rumors but by knowing a person personally as most rumors are fucked up or false, anyway.

It all came true, though.

Here's a prime example. On Wednesday the owner asked how I was to do the ordering on my own on Thursday for an order coming in on Friday. I said that I was. The next day, Thursday, his wife came in and asked if I done the ordering yet and I said no and she said she had a side order to put in as well.

Thursday I was also awaken by a phone call from his wife saying that Ryan (the scheduled cook) couldn't cook and asked if I could come in. I said of course I could and came in. I found out that the reason I came in is because Ryan, who also ran Keno, was arrested earlier in the day because he was stealing from the Keno. The Keno is run by the city so the city prosecuted him. I was also told that the former owner had been paying the utilities since the takeover and was not going to anymore and, as a result, the gas and water would be shut off the next day.

I laughed at how ridiculous that was and asked the bartender (who had already taken the process to take over once the current owner had run it into the ground) and he seemed fairly calm about it all.

I sat with the other bartender's boyfriend and hung with him for the rest of the evening talking about what happened and joking about other things.

The next morning I woke up early because Ryan was scheduled to be the day cook and since he wasn't working anymore and because of the ineptitude of the owner, I know he wouldn't get it covered and just have no cook during the day. I came in and no one was there and there was a sign on the door saying it was closed.

I called the owner and got his voicemail and spent the rest of the day wondering what the fuck and if I still had a job. Since I wasn't scheduled until four originally, I thought I'd go then and if it's still closed I would leave my number on there in case it opens (no on had my number).

On my way there the owner calls me and tells me that his wife is going to be there to open up the place for the evening. I get there and the neighbor is there waiting for the owner's wife to come in. The previous owner had paid the bill to keep it running and he did it only because he doesn't want to see the place go down.

The thing is, the previous owner had owned the place for like seven or so years and it was thriving. It was always packed and they even had to open the side rooms to accomodate. They had a couple bartenders, a couple of cooks, a dishwasher, and several waitresses. Now, even on a Friday and Saturday night, the place is a ghost town. I don't want to go more in to the details.

So that night, after work, the whole crew sat at the bar drinking and I got the skinny on a lot of things and was told, yes, they knew it was going to be closed on Friday and the reason they had me order anyway and didn't tell anyone was because that's how inept this dude is. If the previous owner hadn't caved in and paid the bill, the place would've been closed and we'd all be out of jobs.

Cut to Monday. I'm scheduled to come in at 1400 to order and then work the night shift. I pull up to an again empty parking lot with a sign saying, "Closed for lunch." I think that maybe it's closed because lunch tended to be slow and maybe we'll open for dinner. So I call the other cook Jason and he said they were open and the owner called around twelve to shut down the place and as far as he knows, we're shut down.

Since it's 1330, I decide to wait and see if the manager comes in to let me in to order. The neighbor comes and tells me this is fucked up and I should start looking for another job and he (the current owner) fucked it all up. He said if the manager comes and doesn't have a key to come get him and he'll let us in. No one shows. I leave a note with my number to call in case we open.

The plus side of this is I got to go on my second bike ride. I hadn't ridden in over a year and a day prior went on my first one and loved it. Aside from a bruised butt I went on another one. I get a call from the owner's wife saying that we're closed for the night and the owner will call to let me know what's going on.

I get two calls that night. One from one of the bartenders telling me that she was there earlier and the wife was there and a couple of trucks loading thing onto it from the place. She said the wife said the place is probably closed and the owner's just too scared to tell us. This is fucked on so many levels. One being that we're all fucking adults with payments and families and shit.

The other call was from one of the waitresses telling me the situation. Her cousin is the the other bartender that's going to take over and reopen now that current owner is probably gone. It might not happen soon but when it does we all have jobs back there. They can all get unemployment but I can't since I've just started so I started looking for a job today, which I hate.

I've been applying at a bunch of places and I did get a call from the owner's wife saying the place is shut down and the owner should be calling us to let us know all the shit especially payroll. From the shadiness of this guy, there's a chance we won't get our last paycheck, which I'm so depending on else our bills go further behind and we then have no money for food and gas. Hopefully all goes through. If not, one of the waitresses is a paralegal and will get on that.

That may help in the long run if it goes through. But as it stands, I need a job and may get temp work just to get paid soooner to pay the bills. I've been applying at places that are biking distance and somehow a lot have been along the Keystone trail.

I just want to get a job and be settled and work at getting into a normal life where our bills are current and we have our own place and all this fucking nonsense will stop. It's been fucking years already.

Blah!

I had one of those non-stop laugh sessions last night. A rare thing of recent times but is good shit and had me going for a while. We were watching 1408 and A Mighty Heart and during the previews they had one for Margot at the Wedding and this scene where Jack Black and Nicole Kidman are walking and she says, "You can't even hit anybody." Then he says, "Sure I have. I've hit lots of people. You don't know them. They're not here because I punched them."

I couldn't stop laughing for about five minutes and started laughing even more because towards the end of the trailer he's playing croquet and throws the mallet off in the distance in anger down the cliff and the next scene he's walking up a set of stairs from down below. Then I started laughing uncontrollably trying to say, "He went and picked up the mallet!"

You had to be there.

1408 was good. I liked it because Cusack and Jackson were in it. The story was good as well, as with the cinematography. The film and story was sort of like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and It. And I don't say It because it's a Stephen King story, but because it dealth with fears and recent events and used that as a means to the madness.

A Mighty Heart was stupid. The story was all right; it just gave you insights to the story with details you may have not known. All that aside, I hate Angelina Jolie and thought she sucked and just got a kick out of how dumb she was. Danny Pearl was made a dork. I'm not sure if he was one in real life, but from my prejudiced opinion, I thought he seemed sort of cool, from the interview with his wife and stuff. In the movie he was just this dorkie guy who kept saying cheesey cliche catch phrases like, "Even when you grow old...don't ever lose your smile." Come on!

The writing was just terrible and way too many swear words used way too uncomfortably that seemed way too forced just to express emotion.

"Golden Girls"

I was listening to an interview with Mickey Mantle today on "Fresh Air" from, I think, 1985. I liked the honesty of him and how he talked about getting upset after strike outs and throwing the water cooler and how once he threw it onto the field and he got fined $150 but it's worth it to throw the water cooler. His demeanor was so different than that of what I believed it to be by the way that he is portrayed in history and more in particular the Joe Namath biography.

Anyway, the thing I liked best was when Terri asked about when he hit homeruns if he would stand there and watch it sail over (Ken Griffey Jr.) or celebrate or things like that. It made me think of all the arrogance of those pricks like Sammy Sosa, Mark McGuire, Barry Bonds...when they hit a home run they all do shit like that. Mantle's response was no he didn't. He knew what it felt like to strike out and felt for the pitcher who gave up the run. When he strikes out the pitcher doesn't jump up and down and throw his hat in the air or things like that.

So anyway, after work I was hanging out with one of the regulars there. He's a really great guy and knows everybody there and gets along well with everyone and everyone in the community. i found out, through talking with him, that he has a wife and a daughter. This guy's in here every night from like eight till closing. He left early the other night because he had to get up early. Not because maybe he was going home to spend time with the family or anything like that. Because he had to get up early. I don't understand this kind of mentality. He seems to have the sort of care towards people in the loving camaradarie sort of way like you do anything for your friends, but I don't see why his family doesn't come into play in his everyday life.

Off to listen to tonight's "Weasel Radio" show.

Omaha, NE - basement

I'm loving this Weasel Radio stuff. Good shit. His co-host Owen sounds like an adult Kermit the Frog. Which doesn't make sense since Kermit was, presumably, an adult. But I mean it in the sense of he sounds like Kermit but a more mature, deeper voice...if that makes any sense.

So the mother-in-law is moving out of current house and moving into a community. Not an old folkie home, but sort of. It's not as if she's going to be waited on or anything. They clean and provide food but aside from that, it's basically like living on your own. And it comes out cheaper for her per month than her current situation.

On a sort of plus side, she's selling the house in the spring so Jeanne and I have a place until then which is good because we can get ahead on bills and stuff and by then our credit report should be updated and we'll be able to get an apartment.

I've been busy cleaning the kitchen at work because no one there has cleaned or organized the place in years. It's a total warzone. There's nothing sanitary there or anything to tell when something was opened or expiration dates or any order in anything. There were boxes in the freezer that was empty or had a bag with two things in it.

Co-workers are fun nontheless.

This past weekend there was a band there. It was this sort of Jazz-Blues band that was very bad, but they were playing hard and it was hard to watch. There were five people in the place, all regulars, and no one clapped after any song, nor were they paying any attention.

The guitarist was this kid in an off white suit, the bass player was this black guy who looked like an informant from a 70's cop show, and the drummer was this old, balding Asian guy who looks like a high school guidance counselor.

I felt bad for them, but in the kitchen I couldn't stop making fun of them. I was doubled over laughing because it's their first gig, but any band would at least have some friends there to support them. They had no one. No entourage. No anything. What's the deal with traffic?

Last night was Wing Night and I didn't even make one wing. I tried to make a fried salad the other night. Not to eat, but just to do it.

I need to get a boom box for work. There's a radio there but I only listen to NPR and get bored of that and can't get myself to listen to any station, so I brought my DVD player there but the speakers aren't that great. I rocked Danzig all night.

I also may get a cheap TV there because there's a cable hook up in the kitchen and if there's a TV there, there's wrestling.

Ben and Owen are playing a Nickelback song "Rockstar" and making fun of it. "He's Canadian. Why's he singing like that?"

Omaha, NE

I officially quit trucking and am now back in Omaha. Apparently we can't get an apartment because of our bad credit which is dumb considering the circumstances at the place we got declined from and if we can't get one there I doubt there's anywhere else, unless we take over a lease. But on that subject, Jeanne had checked our credit report and there's a shit ton of shit on there that hasn't been removed that should have. The most important one is the $5500 garnishment (or jacking would be more suitable) from goddamn Discover.

It's funny how militant they are upon collecting but when it comes to changing the info on the credit report it's all like whatever. The shitty thing is that a lot that are still on there that has been paid off are the ones that would prevent us from getting an apartment. Like the utilities (which we paid twice), old cell phone, the Discover card, student loans, hospital biils...

Jeanne sent letters to them to fix it but that'll take a long time which sucks because we really need a place to stay. We are currently at the mother-in-law's place but all our things are in boxes. We don't want to stay here much longer but yet if we can't get a place, then what then? I don't like living out of boxes but I also don't want to unpack all this shit and then get a place and then pack up and move out.

On a plus side, the car that was previously stolen was recovered and in working condition; though there's something wrong with it that needs to be checked soon. Also, although the letter we received and a phone call said we didn't have to pay anything to pick the car up, we got there and they said we have to pay $80 to get it out, cash only.

This is stupid. For one, we were told we didn't need to pay anything. And if we were to pay, they should've said that other fees may apply or something to let us know that we should bring money just in case. All these are especially necessary since they accept cash only. What if I walked there or caught the bus? I was actually going to ride my bike there. Anyway, I got pissed and swore, indirectly to Jeanne, and hit the door on the way out and kicked their trash can.

Luckily, Jeanne's mom had cash to loan us so we went back to her place to get it and go back. I'm really sick of being a burden and having to depend on other people. These past years have sucked. I've been dependant all my life and now no matter how much we try, it keeps getting worse, but hopefully that's changing now.

Another thing with this place, it's as if they all have a way of making things just more and more complicated. Funnily enough, the night before I was watching "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and it dealt with lines and places where it keeps it to where the chances or you being in line before someone didn't necissarily mean you'd be served first and they should have it roped off like at Disneyland or take a number so no matter what happens, you get served in the order you were in and not pick the wrong line or something else...like say at the impound lot and there's two windows open and no room to stand so anyone who comes in goes in any direction. Then to make things easier, we move to the left where a roped line thing would be a smart thing to put, so people can come in and no one blocks the door. But all this did was make the people come in think that they can walk straight to the window in front of them that no one is waiting behind.

I don't know how the fuck this logic works! Why the fuck are all these other people standing in a line for? Like we'd all be waiting there for nothing? So these fuck-heads comes in and never occurs to them why these people are in a line nor does it occur to them to ask if that's the line or what the fuck's going on.

It happens at stores as well. I hate when they open a register and just say, "I'll help someone here." They should say, "I'll help the next person in line." Or point to the person next in line and say, "I can help you here." Far too often I'm in line for a long time and then something opens up and then the people in the back of the line goes to the open register. Or some fucking idiot who happens to be walking by there at the exact time they say they'll help someone.

Kansas City, MO

Too much to talk about, but I'm at the Kansas City terminal to turn my truck in and tomorrow is my last day. I got a job in Omaha that's Monday through Friday, swing shift, which leaves the day open for school.

Also, the car that got stolen was found and we pick it up tomorrow from the impound lot. Hopefully it's not just on cinder blocks or just the shell or something.

Ben Weasel has a sports/music show on ESPN Madison radio with Owen Murphy. Fucking awesome. Cannot wait for that one.

Winnie Cooper is dumb.

Also, I watched the Boy Who Could Fly last night. I always liked that movie for nostalgic reasons but realized how dumb a movie it is. I really liked it for Fred Savage playing with GI Joes and when Millie got someone to throw the volleybacll at her head because Eric would stop it and he didn't and she got knocked out.

But yeah, that movie's stupid. In every way. Like just because he flies means that by holding her hand he can transfer his flying abilities to her as well. And if that's not the case, then he's strong enough to hold her level with one arm.

And we're to believe that he can fly without flapping arms or with wings or anything. There's no logic behind his flying ability except just think it and do it.

Even when Fred Savage got past the bullies, it was so lame. It's nothing any of them would just get more upset at and beat him more. Nothing he did to them would make them think twice about picking on him anymore. Or those two kids that was chasing him and the truck was backing up and he rode past the truck only to leave them two stuck on the other side of the pick-up truck. A pick-up truck that they could've just walked around in two seconds and continued their pursuit.