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hawkfromahandsaw
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Name: None
Birthday: 3/31/1969
Gender: Male
Interests: music, books, the private affairs of others
Expertise: trumpet, guitar, a drunken form of martial arts
Occupation: Government
Industry: Government
Message: message me
Member Since:
3/17/2004
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| Yesterday I was in a pet supply store in STL (I took a 24-hour trip there to hang out, apt. search, etc.) and the radio was playing quietly in the background. Dog toys only interest me so much (although the "Bowser beer" was probably worth the trip) and the 30-second news break held my attention pretty well. There was a lot, maybe 20 seconds, about the deal w/ Russia/Georgia, but at the end the anchor mentioned, in a very somber tone, that........BERNIE MAC WAS DEAD!!!
I was stunned. And immediately began to laugh uncontrollably. From the heavens, Bernie Mac sent me a lightning bolt of hilarity, the same way he did each time I caught a rerun of that show where he was always bitching about someone else's kids. Unfortunately, the teller at the pet supply place was unaware of the celestial presence, and probably thought I was an ASSHOLE for laughing so much at the demise of one of the country's favorite B-list celebrities.
That went on for a couple more minutes before I exited the shop in shame.
Afterwards, Katey and I cruised the edge of the ghetto, writing down phone numbers posted outside apartments for rent. | | |
| I'm approaching the last full month of my summer stay in Peoria. Because Eric moved to Champaign in July, I moved into a house with Scott P. and Josie E. on Sunday, where I will live until my internship is finished around Sept. 10. The house is nice (built in 1927) mostly because Josie is working to restore it, and it's been fun changing neighborhoods in a city I'm slowly getting a feel for.
Frankly, I don't like Peoria. So much of it is dirty and run down without good reason. This was an aspect of Carbondale that I actually liked, but it was different there because I saw enough people that it made sense trash was everywhere and buildings were being ripped apart. Carbondale's rental properties are generally dilapidated and its streets are filled with potholes, but the Strip is full of people at night and the most of the restaurants aren't empty at 8 p.m. The filth was kind of evidence people were around and they were doing things.
Not so in Peoria. A lot of the city is abandoned factories or half-demolished buildings. Sometimes, I can't figure out where the population of 100,000 supposedly exists at. There is a reasonable crowd downtown around lunch time, and some Friday and Saturday nights are busier than others at the bars on Main St., but definitely not enough to account for 100,000 people. There is no university here (except Bradley, which is small and private. Plus, it's summer.), so it kind of makes sense the bars are not so full, but where are the normal degenerates that should be blowing their paychecks on booze every night? I know I will read about them slapping their girlfriends later at work when I read through police reports, but they are nowhere to be seen when I'm out and about at midnight. To be fair, I don't frequent Club Apollo or Excalibur in the ghetto, where much of the fun might be occurring.
So I won't be too upset to leave for St. Louis in September. I've spent the past couple days searching Craigslist for a sublease or a "roommate wanted" ad, and it hasn't been too tough to find places. Everyone seems to have a horror story about hooking up with a random roommate that turned out to be creepy/gross/irresponsible/etc, and I plan on ignoring all their warnings. My singular random roommate experience was pretty good (Anyone who met Rashad can attest to this.), and I wouldn't mind a similarly awkward situation in the near future. Probably it will be way worse than I thought, and I will regret it, and I will have scars or bad credit or a damaged psyche for the rest of my life, but I'm up for the gamble. | | |
| Work is eight hours a day.
I've cut a lot of the red meat.
Eric and I drink (a couple) good beers most nights.
For the first time in a while I've read and written (not news).
Sleeping is easy in my corner next to the trash.
God damn. | | |
| After a week in Peoria I'm not in bad shape. My internship is a lot less stressful than I expected and living on MLK Drive with Eric has been treating me pretty well. I have a pretty reasonable amount of free time, which is good in way, but I have a tendency to spend a lot of it dicking around on the Internet (like now). Someday I will probably gain some self control. I have no idea what I am doing after August, and I definitely like it that way. It's kind of entertaining to try to figure it out and it is WAY too soon for me to be making long-term plans of any kind. There is probably a backlash to college graduation in my thinking: I need another few years of fucking around. There was a reasonable amount of fucking around to be had last night, as Chris, David and I tried semi-successfully to find something to do in Charleston. At least that walk across town got me some exercise. | | |
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