the final(?) week

1 Year at The Claypole House. She's been good to me.

Monday. I opened with Sarah, and then after a nap, Amos and I went over to Emily's to relax after a hellish day at work. One of the Health Inspectors for the World Choir Games came in and wants to shut us down, the whole thing is ridiculous. I think we'll be all right, though. There's a hearing about it sometime next week, and I'm unsure who called for it. John and Brandy came over later in the night, and so did Brandon, bearing the gift of peace, much-needed peace. Ams came home from her stint in Dayton over the weekend, watching the house for Mom & Dad who are in Arizona, and she brought Sky with her. "She almost got hit by a car today," Ams told me. Sky's not really the brightest mutt around.

The Last Day of Spring. I slept in and then closed with Emily. The Health Inspector came in again, raising more havoc, but I don't think he'll be back again till next week. I hung out with Amos and Isaac after work, and then I went to Eden Park for a bit to do some reading--The Killer Angels, it's an excellent book--and then grabbed Wendy's for dinner. It was an early bedtime for me and Sky. Oh: Blake left for Portland today. He's visiting Rob & Mandy. Am I jealous? Certainly so.

The First Day of Summer. Tiffany and I opened, and we were ridiculously busy. Everything's back up and running and business is good. Andy and I played Grand Theft Auto IV in the dungeon after work, and then I met up with Dewenter on Fountain Square, kicking off the summer with beers and dinner at Rock Bottom Brewery. Megan hit us up with a discount and I used one of my $25 gift cards to cover the rest (leaving a decent tip, of course). Dewenter and I sat out on the Square after stuffing ourselves with nachos, pasta, and a triple chocolate brownie smothered in vanilla ice cream and hot fudge. We watched a Reggae band playing for 2012's "Summer on the Square" concert series, and they basically covered 80's songs in a retrofitted Reggae feel. I didn't get the band's name and made sure of that. We parted ways, and I took Sky for a delightful walk around campus, reliving cryptic and half-buried memories. Those days at C.C.U. feel so very long ago, are of a different chapter in my life, and I kinda feel like remembering them is like looking through someone else's memoirs. 

One Year at the Claypole House! I woke feeling sick after a bad dream, but work took the edge off. I headed up to Dayton with Sky; she much prefers being in her home environment. She was surrounded by people she didn't know--namely Amos and Andy--and she seemed pretty uncomfortable. But can you blame her? Just look at them. The evening was spent hanging out with Tyler at his place: MW3, sushi, and Blue Planet nature documentaries. Ams joined us later in the evening, and both of us stayed at Mom & Dad's place. I watched Civil War documentaries before collapsing into bed around 1 A.M.

Friday. I headed down to Cincinnati to work my 11-6:00 shift, and after hanging out with a few people around the house--the usual crew, plus Isaac & Josh A.--I went back to Dayton for the last night of house-sitting (Ams covered most of it while I watched Sky). I fixed linguine in Alfredo sauce with grilled chicken and vegetables, and it was delicious. Before bed I watched the first part of "Gettysburg", a movie based on The Killer Angels and phenomenal because (a) it's filmed on-location and (b) everything from the troop movements, rifles, epithets and boots is historically accurate. "It helps me better envision an accurate portrayal of the events when I'm reading the book," I told Ams. I'm such a nerd.

Saturday. I grabbed McDonald's for breakfast--I'm a sucker for their breakfast burritos, and they're only a dollar!--and then got coffee from the Centerville Starbucks and perused Barnes & Noble. I spent the morning reading & writing, playing with Sky, and it was a cool morning so I went over to Stubb's Park and walked around for a bit. So much on my mind lately. Ams & I hung out on the back porch for a while, and when she went swimming in Mom's retrofitted pool, I met up with Tony P. & Dewenter at our old stomping-grounds: CHINA COTTAGE! I'd forgotten (but delightfully remembered) how amazing their food is. Appetizer, soup, and the entree were all first-class. I returned to Cincinnati to enjoy a calm evening playing video games with Andy & Amos.

Sunday. I was a fool and left my wallet in Dayton, so I jetted up there upon awakening and spent the afternoon visiting with Mom & Dad, and they shared stories of Navajo Indians and desert livin' from their time doing mission work in Arizona. I returned to Cincinnati and got dinner at Red Robin with Ams, and desert was three tubs of U.D.F. ice cream (3 for $10!) while watching the movie Driver with Amos & Andy.

The plan all along was to give day-to-day descriptions of different parts of my week through my first year in Cincinnati. Well. I've been in Cincinnati a year now. A lot's changed. A lot hasn't changed. And I'm unsure whether or not I want to keep it going. My life honestly isn't that exciting--these posts are about as exciting as I can make it, so you know it's not quite that over-the-top--but at the same time, my nostalgic funny-bone gets tickled by the mere presence of these posts, and I like to trickle through them in a cascading fashion, reliving different moments of my time here. This, along with the fact that I don't write on here incredibly often (or at least not as much as I used to; as far as most blogs go, I'm a machine) makes me want to keep it running. So I've decided to just go ahead and keep running with this until (a) I decide, for whatever reason, to kill it, and (b) there's really no Point B here. And thus the 52nd week comes to a close, and we're launching into summer and into my second year here at this den of pagan degenerates.