the 11th week

Current time: 8:16 P.M.

Current music: David Bazan, "Metal Heart"

Current Source of Excitement (SoE): Brandy's coming over!

Monday. LABOR DAY. 'Twas 100 degrees Friday and Saturday, and it was a high of 70 today. Feels like autumn. Only a few more weeks of summer. Tyler spent the night Sunday, and we sat on the front porch in sweatshirts and jeans and smoked clove cigarettes and drank coffee. He headed back home, and the house-peeps thinned out, so I went to Panera for lunch--a bowl of chicken noodle soup, delicious--and wrote a little bit. Spent the afternoon enjoying the wonderful weather. Mandy and I went for a short, cold walk 'round the C.C.U. campus, but there were students there and she got scared, so we left. Amos, Amanda and I went to The Anchor for dinner. Amos has his pipe and I had my Marlboro's (the whole black and mild thing turned out to be worse for me, and I couldn't stop coughing for days; who would've thought?). When we got back Mandy had good wine, and we all got a little bit happy. Not drunk, just happy. God made wine to gladden the hearts of men, did he not?

Tuesday. Woke early, made coffee, and enjoyed a morning cigarette. I worked out, ran by the bank, and had breakfast at The Anchor before work. Hurricane Irene's bearing down on us: so much wind, but thankfully no monsoon rains this time around. But the wind... I love the sound of the house creaking in the wind. Old houses are the best. After work we lit up the hookah (peaches 'n creme), and I retired to my room and lit some incense and did a lot of writing. 

Wednesday. It seems writing, coffee, and (sometimes) breakfast at The Anchor has become "my thing" now, so much to the point that I assume that I'll be there come next morning without even thinking about it pragmatically. Now the waitresses and I are on first-name bases, and before I even sit down, half the time they have my coffee with two creams waiting for me. I love it. After work I ran some errands in Clifton, and then I hung out with Amos and Rob for a while before Ams got home, and we spent the evening on her bed just talking about life and its trimmings.

Thursday. Did some writing right when I woke up, and continued this with coffee and cottage cheese at The Anchor before work. "You're insane, dude: whenever I see you, you're writing," Mandy said. "You're a writing machine." That just about nails it. Amos and I are training together now, and our slot was at 6:30 this week (so Rob could go to Indiana this weekend); between closing and that time, I went across the street to Rock Bottom Brewery and had a milk stout. I returned to the coffee shop with about twenty minutes to spare and passed out shoe-less on one of the sofas. Very cool. By the end of training, I was feeling quite buzzed. Rob could tell something was up, and I told him, and he gave me a high-five: "Right on, Dude! Rock Bottom's got the best beers." Yeah, they do, and I don't drink too often, so one heavy beer can send me into the buzz. Perhaps this explains why I kept screwing up the latte art heart? I was half drunk? Nevertheless, after all that Brandy, Ams and I spent the evening watching Frisky Dingo, and Amanda and Mandy made cookies. Isaac rolled in late and spent the night.

Friday. Cat asked me to come into work early. I was blanking on a legitimate excuse, so I did (but not until I dropped Mandy's car off at the shop). A pretty busy Friday, surprisingly so. Rob and Mandy went off to Indiana and Ams went to Dayton, so the Claypole House became the Classic House for about three hours. And, as should have been expected, nothing happened and nothing changed. Amos, Blake and I spent the evening hanging out, and Brandon from work came by. We sat on the porch and smoked, then Amos and Blake joined us for a walk across C.C.U. to the overlook. I started smoking and Amos said, "No one's allowed to smoke here." I just looked at him and then he asked for one. We all smoked and looked at the city and then walked back to the house, leaving the school behind us in the dark. Ams came home from work, and Isaac came by after he closed Refuge. He announced his presence by tapping on Ams' window and scaring the absolute shit out of her. She came bolting into my room, terrified, so I had to dress and then I just went out onto the porch--we had similar problems at the Lehman House--to find that it's Isaac trying to get in. Good times.

Saturday. I hit up The Anchor and did some writing (is this even noteworthy anymore? hell, half this stuff isn't, anyways), then ran up to Dayton to see Tyler. We met at the ol' Spring Valley Starbucks and then went to Goodwill to do some shopping. Got some decent sweaters in preparation for winter. They're grandpa-esque sweaters. I love them. And Tyler got a Nerf gun. "We shoot each other at work." We split, and I went by the house to pack up my awesome autumn wardrobe I'm ready to bust out, and I visited with Mom and Dad, Grandma and the pups. Before heading back to Cincinnati I went back by Spring Valley to see Carly and Leah, and then I did some cleaning up in my room (pics to come, eventually) and just relaxed. Picked up some Bolthouse for dinner--blueberry blast!--and did a good amount of writing. Ams and I hung out for most of the nights, in her room and in mine, and we played Left4Dead and then hung out with Isaac, Blake, and Amos. All in all a good day, topped off by getting to talk to the Wisconsinite. Oh, and I broke the right-side mirror off my car. Should probably get that fixed.

Sunday. Had an oven-baked spinach, artichoke, and mushroom pizza with veggie chips for lunch while watching God Grew Tired of Us: great, enlightening film. (see post far below) Rob and Mandy returned from Indianapolis, and Mandy and I hung out for a bit in her room. They just got a sleek-looking sofa, very modernist minimalistic. I like it. I hijacked a bunch of songs from Blake's external hard-drive, the best of which (so far) is Damien Jurado. Really a fan (see post not so far below). At night I sat by the firepit and smoked cigarettes and listened to my IPOD. Quite refreshing.