underneath the mexican moon

I have a stalker, which if nothing else is reason enough to stop talking to strangers. Unforunately, I don't know anyone else so its either risk further stalkers or slowly go loco.

My stalker struck up a conversation with me last night over frappes and seeing as I had nothing else to do I killed a couple of hours with her. She's a nice enough girl, but well, you know.

Anyhow I saw her again after my run today but managed to sidestep her attempts to get me to eat dinner with her, knowing full well I wanted to go to the pricey blue lobster and while I would have welcmed company, we'll you know.

So imagine my surprise when someone that looked like her walked by me in the restaurant? I dot know if it was her but I'm glad I'm moving uptown tomorrow where its less likely ill see her and if nothing else the hotel is more secure.

on the road in mexico

Enroute to Playa del Carmen in a little shuttle bus with Laura's wedding party. So far I have seen nothing even remotely interesting or attractive on this ride other than her friend staci, apparantly a recent divorcee.

I've seen signs for walmart, stopped at a 711, and seeing as everyone has something to say about the water, iwashed my hands with no bad results...yet.

A Few Thoughts Before Bed

I'm out of here in a couple of days, and I can't wait. I don't want to have any contact with my real life for a while, I want to forget about nearly eveything and everyone I know. That sounds bad, but it isn't, I just need a break from being me, and I need to be someone else for a while. Really, it's not you, it's me, I couldn't be happier.

Before I go, I'm trying to get my shit together, which means getting all the work shit square before I go, and of course running around town, doing a ton of little errands so I have all the crap I need while I'm gone. On that front, I pretty much just need to get a pair or two of comfy shorts, and some toiletries, and I'm good to go. The shorts may have to wait until Mexico. I have to clean the house, so that it's not completely disgusting for my friends who are staying here on their own vacation and watching el perro in return for the crash.

Meantime, after my long run with E today, I stopped in the Barnes + Noble to get some all important reading material for my trip and I was in and out in minutes. My choices were somewhat easy to make, but had some serious strings attached.

I knew I wanted to buy Douglas Coupland's new book Jpod because I've bought all his books pretty much on release since Life After God, his first work released after I'd read the Seminal Generation X. Unfortunately, it's been a while since Doug's had a winner, and his last book Eleanor Rigby was just awful. Interestingly in discussing this with fellow fan E's E last night and grabbing these links from Amazon, I was surprised to find out how utterly reviled Girlfriend In A Coma, a book I consider his last good work, is. Maybe you have to be a Smiths fan?

The other book I bought was A Canticle For Leibowitz, a sort of sci fi classic that was recommended to me by a rapidly cycling manic depressive I used to date. It's a good book, but somewhat forgotten I think until this rerelease. I've never heard anyone else mention it, but I'm looking forward to reading it again.

As for the rapidly cycling manic depressive, there are some things you just don't need to repeat, though I hope she is well.

And I'm in that place between midnight and 2am where you know you should go to asleep but I'm enjoying reading and writing, and I don't really want to stop, but I'm going to.

I'll see if I can write you from Mexico.

Selling Out At Last

Steve, you need to bottle those feelings, seriously, you live in park slope, go make some money and contribute to the decline of the world instead, like every other good, hypocritical park sloper. - Anonymous "advice" from someone I suspect does not like to be called Brownie.

It's a rainy Saturday morning, or it is supposed to be, sometimes it's hard to tell here from up on the 4th floor. I'm supposed to be doing a long run today, but instead I'm spending the morning fucking around the house, fucking around on the internet, and getting bits of work done before I leave for the Yucatan this Wednesday. Monday and Tuesday will not leave much time for odds and ends. In about two hours I'll head into the city to do some shopping, and then E and I will likely get some miles in.

And I can't wait to get out of here to tell you the truth, but that's a whole other story. I'm kind of into what comes next right at this moment.

My business is doing really well, and I've been doing this long enough to know when to make a move, and this is one of those times. I couldn't tell you what the experts are saying about the economy, but this feels like 1998 to me, minus the heady pre-millenial tocuh, and I see the number of people going into business for themselves, friends and new clients, and from this random illogical sample, I know things are about to get real good. Ask me to explain it to you in terms of economics, and I can't, but sometimes you have to go with your gut, and I know that's always been the key to my success.

And if I'm right, this time around, I want to take as much as I can. To do that, Quick Byte has to become something else. I'm not quite sure what, but it has to be something I never really wanted in the first place, and I'm not sure I want now, but I don't care. Like I said I want to take as much as I can. It's time to really and truly sell out.

So, when I get back, I begin this process of building a company that is already a little too big for me into something even bigger. I get to work harder, maybe even manage some people again, who knows I might even have to start paying commercial rent. I hope not, but I will, it's time to be a good hypocritical Park Sloper.

Ah, success.

breaking the social contract

This has been bugging me lately, so I'm going to do something really girly, I'm going to blog about something that happened with a girl.

About a month ago I met someone on the F train, and asked her out for a drink. Fair enough, right?

She agreed and at the appointed time we met, and ordered a gin an tonic and she ordered...nothing!

Now, had she said that she didn't drink or whatever beforehand, or would prefer to meet for a cup of coffee, or really anything else, that would have been ok, but she agreed to meet for a drink, and it just seems like an jerky thing to do, not having one. More to the point, eating and drinking, breaking bread and cracking open a bottle of wine are the things that hold our society together. It's a violation of the social contract when you sit down at the bar for a drink, and don't even order a glass of wine to sip, or even waste.

And it pisses me off.

Do This More Often

I’m sitting on the couch in my apartment with all the lights off, everything off except the overhead fan which is imperceptible. The storm is directly overhead and the thunder is so loud that a second ago when I looked out my window I saw my neighbor, wearing a pink halter, jump at the peal. The dog is so stressed out by this entire turn of events that she can’t sit still, and despite my attempts to coax her into sitting next to me is on her way to the tub which she thinks is the safest place in the apartment. I heard her nails clicking on the porcelain a minute ago.

I love the sound of a good storm.

I remember being much younger visiting North Carolina, after returning from a night of roller skating, no doubt with hillbillies and inbred stepsisters, there was the kind of storm you cannot have in New York City, the kind of storm you can only have where there is so much more sky. I still think this was the biggest thunderstorm I have ever witnessed; it seemed that way at the time.

The storm sounds like it’s moved off a bit, but judging by the sky which is constantly lit up with lightning, you wouldn’t think so, but you can tell by the thunder, that the worst has passed for the time being. The thunder is like a low roll, punctuated by enormous cracks, but the cracks are duller, are more distant, not as immediate, as they were when Kinka was considering a future in a tub that only she can sit in.

I would give anything for a porch right now, a way to be closer to this storm, but well that’s New York City for you. Still there is So Much Sound right now. . It sounds like the storm is coming back but if you count the seconds between lightning and thunder, there are too many for it to be that close, there’s no conjunction now. The rain just shifted somewhat, so instead of just the steady drizzle, there is now the patter against the air conditioner and the sounds of the storm are fading.  The human noises in the background are picking up, people shrieking, car alarms. The worst of it has definitely passed. Someone should let the dogs know.