the 53rd week

photo courtesy of Cat-Herine.
from the Rock Bottom Brewery botanical gardens

Monday. Work: uneventful. My day: likewise. The highlight: a roommate dinner of linguini, alfredo, mushrooms and broccoli, with grilled chicken and artisan bread. I must come to accept the fact that putting my life on stand-by waiting for a resolution that will never come does nothing but breeds stagnation. 

Tuesday. I went to The Anchor before closing 600. There was lots of chaos when I walked in: Tiffany stressed out and threatening to quit, Brandon going crazy with stress, and Ana quietly observing it all. Brandon and I enjoyed a cigarette by the fountain before parting ways, and I went to the duck pond at Eden Park and read up on the 20th Maine's defense of Little Round Top at Gettysburg, and then I broiled steak for dinner while Isaac and Josh brewed honey beer in the kitchen, and Blake got home from Portland and we crowded his room and watched The Hangover 2. 

Wednesday. I went to The Anchor before closing with Brandon. After work we met up with Amos & Cat at Rock Bottom for beers and food: fried calamari, ball park pretzels, and pork sliders (and those were just the appetizers). I had a Summery Honey Ale and a Belgian White, was feeling pretty good. The evening was spent reading The Killer Angels.

Mom's Birthday. Last year this time we were in Savannah, Georgia. I miss that place, I really do. I worked Food Prep today, and it was another crazy day: USFoods came late again, we were understaffed and slammed with the 104 degree heat wave. I was going to get a beer from Rock Bottom and sit on the patio, but it was too damned hot and I was too damned tired, so I just went home and passed out with my A.C. blasting. Andy and I went to Kroger, and we watched "Ghosbusters" and had a dinner of fruity pebbles and popsicles. Brandon came over for a bit, and we sat in the dungeon and talked about all the frustrations we have with work at the moment. I confessed to Amos, "I've been missing the 'Bux a lot lately: the organization, the staffing, the procedures, the financial security, the benefits." He can't blame me. Brandon left and I went for a drive--some church was burning on State Avenue, people were crowding the viaduct overlook to watch--and I rounded out the night reading The Killer Angels.

Friday. Isaac & I met up at The Anchor for much-missed cigarettes, coffee, and conversation. We talked about all the chaos at work, "The Farm" (a communal project he's throwing together at a 'political pace'), and we reminisced on the days when Rob was around, when all of Tazza Mia was like a family. Now the comraderie has diminished to me, Isaac, Amos, Andy, Emily and Brandon (with Tiffany as an honorary member). We both headed off to the work, him to Carew and myself to 600, and I closed with Amos. It was a slow day, and a freaky windstorm blew through the city right at close, the towering buildings serving as wind tunnels. Ams happened to come by, and we went to Chipotle across the street on Fountain Square, and on our way back to the store it started to rain a hammering rain, like a tropical rain. Trash was blowing horizontal through the air, and she gave me a lift to my car and took Amos home. Route 50 looked as if it were the New Orleans dam right before breaking, surges of water breaking against the barricades and surging up like shattered waves glistening in the lightning. It was pretty incredible. When the storm passed it was much cooler, no longer in the 100s, and Brandon came by, and we hung out for a while. He went home to play piano, Andy was in bed by 9:00, and everyone else quickly followed suit. I alone rocked out my Friday night, staying up till 3 A.M. reading The Killer Angels on the front porch.

Saturday. Blake & I shared that awkward moment when we both leave the house separately at the same time and end up going to the same place: McDonald's. We were both just craving their breakfast. It could've been a commercial. I went to The Anchor come evening and finished The Killer Angels, and I celebrated with (a) a western omelette with home fries slathered in onions and gravy, wheat toast and coffee; and (b) back home I finished watching Gettysburg, the book's movie adaptation. It was such a damn good book, I can't wait to start the next (and last) of the trilogy: The Last Full Measure. Isaac came by for a while and passed out on our sofa after hookah, The Big Lebowski, Burn After Reading, and lego sculpting with Andy.

Sunday. Amos, Isaac and I hung out as we got up, and I grabbed breakfast burritos and watched The Office and then took Amos downtown to do inventory at 600. I picked up an iced soy mocha on my way out and jetted up to Centerville to hang out with Tyler. We played MW3 and watched an IMAX movie on the giant dinosaurs of Patagonia. I hung out with Mom, Dad, Grandma & the dogs at my parents' house, and we had Tombstone pizza and watched another storm roll through. Back in Cincinnati I spent the remaining hours of my Sunday night hanging out with the roommates and sitting on the front porch in the damp Georgian air listening to the fireworks that sounded like musketfire and the distant eastern thunder rolling like cannon. Fitting: today is the 149th anniversary of the first day's fighting at Gettysburg. 

I decided to keep this thing going, obviously.

For how long? Who can say?

But I figured I should post on this blog, at least, four times a month.

So in a worse-case scenario, this fits the bill.